BACKWARD  CHILDREN 


By 
ARTHUR  HOLMES 

Dean  of  the  General  Faculty  of  the  Pennsylvania 

State  College  and  Author  of  The 

Conservation  of  the  Child 


CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH  SERIES 

Edited  by  M.  V.  O'SHEA 
Professor  of  Education,  The  Univosity  of  Wisconsin 


{Q2? 


INDIANAPOLIS 

THE  BOBBS-MERRILL  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright  1915 
The  Bobbs-Merrill  Company 


PRESS  or 

BRAUNWORTH   fc    CO. 

BOOKBINDERS    AND    PRINTERS 

BROOKLYN,   N.  Y. 


TO  MY  WIFE 

WHOSE  QUIET  DEVOTION  TO  STUDY 

UNDER  DIFFICULTIES  HAS  SO  MANY  TIMES 

INSPIRED  MY  FALTERING 

DILIGENCE 


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in  2007  witli  funding  from  - 

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EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION 

We  are  these  days  reading  and  hearing  a  good  deal 
about  backward  children.  When  is  a  child  backward  ? 
May  he  be  backward  in  some  ways  and  forward  in 
others?  Are  children  backward  by  birth,  or  are  they 
made  so  by  neglect  or  bad  methods  of  training?  What 
are  the  signs  of  backwardness?  Is  there  any  way  of 
determining  accurately  whether  or  not  a  given  child 
is  permanently  arrested?  Could  the  parent  and  the 
teacher  help  an  unfortunate  child  if  they  could  early 
detect  his  shortcomings  ?  What  part  do  physical  causes 
play  in  mental  and  moral  backwardness?  Is  retarda- 
tion in  childhood  and  youth  ever  due  to  the  use  of 
stimulants  such  as  tea,  coffee,  cocoa  and  alcoholic  bev- 
erages? What  part  does  food  play  in  determining 
whether  or  not  a  child  will  be  normal  intellectually  and 
morally  ? 

These  questions  and  others  like  them  are  of  supreme 
importance  to-day  to  teachers  and  parents.  People  are 
seeking  light  from  every  source  on  the  problems  of 
the  backward  child.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  volume 
to  discuss  all  these  matters  in  a  scientific  but  at  the 
same  time  simple,  concrete  and  practical  way.  The 
author,  Dean  Holmes,  has  had  unusual  opportunities 
to  study  the  subject  of  backwardness  in  its  various 
aspects,  theoretical  and  practical.  He  is  one  of  the 
very  small  number  of  persons  in  this  country  who  have 
dealt  with  the  subnormal  child  in  the  laboratory  and 
tiie  clinic  as  well  as  in  the  home  and  the  school.  He 
has  given  us  new  conceptions  of  what  bade  war  dness 


editor's  introduction 

means,  and  especially  of  its  varieties,  its  causes,  and 
practical  remedies  therefor  in  home  and  school. 

There  is  not  much  literature  available  in  English  on 
the  subject  of  backward  children,  and  even  the  few 
books  and  articles  that  are  accessible  deal  with  the 
subject  in  a  rather  general  way.  Dean  Holmes,  how- 
ever, as  the  title  of  his  volume  indicates,  treats  con- 
crete cases  of  backwardness.  He  pictures  vividly  the 
typical  varieties  of  children  who  give  parents  and 
teachers  trouble.  He  goes  into  sufficient  detail  so  that 
the  type  can  be  easily  recognized.  Instead  of  discuss- 
ing the  characteristics  of  the  various  types  in  abstract 
terms,  he  simply  lets  us  see  a  genuine  representative 
of  each  type.  Physical  characteristics  are  described, 
and  shortcomings  depicted.  The  method  of  treatment 
is  given  in  the  same  detailed  way;  and  many  of  these 
cases  have  been  followed  by  Dean  Holmes  far  enough 
so  that  he  has  been  able  to  observe  the  results  of  the 
remedies  that  have  been  applied.  This  is  the  mode  of 
procedure  throughout  the  book,  which  gives  it  a  very 
objective,  concrete  and  practical  value. 

The  parent,  teacher,  medical  inspector,  or  clinician 
can  use  Dean  Holmes'  book  in  much  the  same  way 
that  a  botanist,  say,  would  use  a  key  to  the  flowers  he 
is  identifying  and  classifying.  Most  books  dealing 
with  human  nature  do  not  describe  types  so  that  they 
can  be  recognized  by  the  non-expert.  But  this  is  one 
of  the  virtues,  and  it  is  an  important  one,  of  Back- 
ward Children,  It  has  the  further  virtue  of  being 
written  in  a  sympathetic  spirit.  The  author  feels  ten- 
derly for  these  children  who  in  one  way  or  another 


editor's  introduction 

can  not  adapt  themselves  to  the  situations  in  which 
they  are  placed.  No  one  will  doubt  that  he  is  eager 
to  instruct  those  who  have  to  deal  with  such  children 
how  to  discover  the  cause  of  their  abnormality, 
whether  of  intellect  or  of  character,  and  then  how  to 
apply  effective  remedies. 

The  book  is  written  in  a  simple  graceful  style  with- 
out affectation  or  pretense.  It  is  particularly  free 
from  technical  or  professional  terminology  so  that  the 
layman  can  read  it  with  ease  and  with  pleasure. 

M.V.O'Shea. 
Madison,  Wisconsin. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

This  volume  is  an  inductive  study  of  backward  chil- 
dren. It  presents  in  a  series  of  concrete  illustrations 
studies  of  cases  to  exemplify  the  principles  and  meth- 
ods underlying  the  diagnosis,  treatment  and  training 
of  backward  children.  It  aims  to  describe  the  cases  as 
simply,  non-technically  and  humanly  as  the  subject- 
matter  will  permit,  in  order  to  be  of  service  to  the 
care-taker  of  children  who  does  not  have  a  technical 
education  in  abnormal  psychology.  The  style  is  pur- 
posely as  popular  in  vein  as  possible  without  offending 
scientific  principles  or  sacrificing  scientific  exactness  in 
essentials. 

The  larger  consideration  is  given  to  those  backward 
children  who  can  be  reclaimed.  The  feeble-minded 
are  touched  upon  only  incidentally  and  for  the  purpose  Hfj^ 
of  showing  the  dangers  to  society  lurking  in  their  neg-  -♦ 
lect  and  misunderstanding  by  the  public.  Their  sepa- 
ration from  the  temporarily  backward  requires  a  clin- 
ical diagnosis  of  each  child.  How  far  such  a  diagnosis 
can  be  carried  by  the  ordinary  layman  is  illustrated 
and  explained. 

For  aid  and  advice  in  writing  this  volume  I  am  in- 
debted to  many  friends,  to  whom,  on  account  of  the 
form  of  the  book,  acknowledgment  can  not  always  be 
made  in  the  proper  place.  Miss  Elizabeth  E.  Farrell, 
Doctor  William  Burdick  and  Doctor  L.  W.  Rapeer 
most  kindly  read  portions  of  the  manuscript  and  made 


AUTHOR  S   PREFACE 

valuable  suggestions ;  Mr.  Charles  K.  Taylor  permitted 
me  to  use  some  of  his  material  on  coffee-drinking  and 
on  manual  training;  Miss  Effie  Reimensnyder  read  the 
whole  manuscript.  To  the  Psychological  Clinic  at  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  of  which  Doctor  Lightner 
Witmer  is  founder  and  director,  and  with  whom  I  was 
associated  a  number  of  years,  I  owe  a  large  number 
of  the  illustrative  cases  used.  To  the  editor,  Doctor 
O'Shea,  I  am  indebted  most  of  all,  for  his  patience 
and  uniform  courtesy,  for  his  suggestions  and  practical 
direction,  and  for  his  unfailing  inspiration. 

My  hope  is  that  the  volume  may  be  of  help  to  those 
who  are  striving  to  help  the  slow  boys  and  girls  in  the 
home  or  the  school,  and  that  it  may  contribute  its  mite 
toward  a  better  understanding  of  these  unwilling  lag- 
gards and  a  more  sympathetic  support  of  their  efforts 
to  march  with  the  great  army  of  their  more  fortunate 
fellows. 

Arthur  Holmes. 

State  College,  Pa. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I    Measuring  Rods  for  Children 1 

The  individual  standard  for  measuring  retarda- 
tion illustrated — The  social  standards  in  the  home 
— Pedagogical  standards  of  retardation — Age  and 
grade — Progress — Playground  standards — Scien- 
tific standards — Their  objection — Binet  tests — 
Standards  in  general — Meaning  of  backwardness 
depends  upon  standards — Backwardness  some- 
times good. 

II    Varieties  of  Backward  Children 18 

The  two  great  classes  of  backward  children  illus- 
trated— Temporarily  and  permanently  retarded 
children — Those  who  immediately  recover  lost 
ground  after  medical  treatment — Those  who  re- 
quire brief  special  training  after  medical  treat- 
ment— Those  who  require  long  and  patient  train- 
ing after  medical  treatment. 

III  Typical  Retardation  Due  to  Physical  Defects  36 
The  story  of  Joe — The  diagnosis  of  his  case — 
Study  of  his  environment — The  physical  exami- 
nation— His  appearance,  posture,  hair,  nose,  teeth, 
mouth — Mental  symptoms  of  adenoids — Reading 
tests — Eye  and  ear  tests — Adenoid  and  tonsil  op- 
eration— Other  treatments — Training — Constitu- 
tional treatment — Results. 

IV  Minds  in  Straight  Jackets 58 

Many  types  of  mind  among  backward  children — 
The  slow  boy — His  school  troubles — Success  in 

his  profession — The  boy  with  the  mechanical  turn 
— Saved  by  high  school  manual  work — The  girl 
with  almost  no  interests — The  developmen.t  and 
growth  of  the  germ-interest. 


CONTENTS— C(7«//«a^^ 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

V    Bad  and  Backward 83 

Badness  sometimes  causes  mental  retardation — 
The  fighter — A  hopelessly  bad  girl — A  pseudo- 
moral  imbecile — Laziness — A  truant  made  and 
cured — A  truant  born. 

VI    Retardation  Due  to  Environment 110 

The  causes  of  mental  retardation  reside  either 
within  or  without  the  child — Minute  and  ridicu- 
lous causes — Unhygienic  home  conditions — Coifee, 
tea,  candies  and  sweets,  as  causes — Under-nour- 
ishment — The  influence  of  the  gang — The  home 
and  the  gang — A  boy  among  bad  companions — - 
The  conversion  of  a  gang — The  gang-spirit  organ- 
ized for  study. 

VII    The  Backward  Child  in  the  Home 134 

A  case  of  no  home  training  and  its  results — A 
diagnosis  necessary — Home  training  in  self-help 
— Chores  for  boys  and  girls — The  teacher  in  the 
home — Feeding  children — The  amounts  and  kinds 
of  foods — Surgical  treatment  for  special  cases — 
The  discovery  of  simple  childish  diseases. 

VIII  The  Clinical  Diagnosis  of  Backward  Children  162 
The  process  of  diagnosis  as  a  whole — Definition 
of  feeble-mindedness — What  we  measure  in  clas- 
sifying backward  children — Mental  potentialities 
— The  physical  examination  and  its  twofold  pur- 
pose— The  physical  marks  of  a  typical  imbecile 
— General  appearance  and  organs — Mental  tests — 
Mental  signs  of  permanent  backwardness — Slow 
in  mental  development — Various  stages  of  devel- 
opment— Particular  mental  defects. 

IX    The  Teacher's  Diagnosis 190 

It  is  difficult  to  observe  a  child — Two  cases  mis- 
judged by  exterior  appearances — The  mental  con- 
tent— The  child's  interests — Play — Some  particu- 
lar instincts  —  Temperaments  —  The  types  of 
perceptions  —  Intellectual,  volitional  and  emo- 
tional children — The  intellectual  processes  and 
their  peculiarities. 


CO  NTENTS-^ConiinueJ 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

X    The  Teacher  and  Equipment  for  a  Special 

Class 219 

The  vital  kind  of  teacher  illustrated — ^Two  types 
of  teachers — A  teacher's  physical  attributes — Her 
temperament — Her  special  training — Her  age  and 
experience — Need  of  teachers — Rooms — Their  lo- 
cation— Equipment  in  detail — Hints  for  courses. 

Index 245 


BACKWARD  CHILDREN 


BACKWARD  CHILDREN 

CHAPTER  I 

MEASURING    RODS    FOR    CHILDREN 

"^TT^HERE  is  a  boy/'  said  a  school-teacher  re- 
1  cently,  pointing  to  a  pale-faced,  high-browed, 
well-dressed  pupil,  "who  ought  to  be  at  the  head  of 
his  class,  and  here  he  is  just  above  the  average!" 
At  such  an  unpolitic  speech  made  to  a  visitor  in  his 
presence,  the  boy  dropped  his  head  and  a  deep  flush 
of  shame  went  over  his  pallid  features.  The  visitor 
became  interested  and  inquired  into  the  matter.  He 
found  that  the  boy  was  the  only  child  of  the  lead- 
ing physician  in  the  town,  a  man  who  had  done  well 
materially  in  his  profession,  but  much  better  in  his 
matrimonial  venture.  He  had  married  the  richest 
young  woman  in  the  neighborhood,  a  girl  noted  for 
her  beauty  and  for  her  ambition.  She  persuaded 
her  husband  to  try  his  fortune  in  a  large  city,  which 
he  did  for  a  few  years,  but,  seemingly,  he  did  not 
succeed  there,  and  upon  the  death  of  his  father-in- 
law,  the  family  returned  to  the  wife's  native  town. 
The  Individual  Standards. — After  Harold's 
birth,  his  mother's  ambition,  disappointed  in  its  so- 

1 


2.     .   .^    BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

cial  aims,  turned  to  her  son,  and  his  education  was 
begun  almost  from  the  cradle.  He  went  through 
the  kindergarten,  with  its  training  supplemented  at 
home  by  all  the  forcing  processes  his  mother  could 
command.  When  the  family  returned  to  their  na- 
tive village,  Harold  was  entered  in  the  public  school 
with  his  mother's  certain  conviction  that,  having  had 
such  exceptional  opportunities  at  home  and  such  per- 
fect preparation  in  kindergarten,  he  would  easily  ex- 
cel his  less  fortunate  fellow  pupils. 

But  his  mother  was  doomed  to  a  second  life-dis- 
appointment. The  boy  developed  into  only  an  or- 
dinary student.  He  kept  up  in  his  classes,  did 
average  work  in  all  his  studies,  but  was  not  brilliant 
in  any.  Though  his  mother  ceaselessly  urged  him 
on  and  held  frequent  conferences  with  his  teachers, 
though  she  superintended  his  lesson  preparation  at 
home,  and  was  often  present  at  his  recitations  in 
school,  still  Harold  moved  on  only  at  the  usual  pace. 
Of  course  the  school  and  the  teachers  came  in  for 
their  share  of  blame  delivered  in  a  thoroughly  polite 
and  half-veiled  way,  but  delivered  nevertheless.  The 
argument  was  this :  Considering  his  exceptional  op- 
portunities and  the  intellectual  superiority  of  at 
least  one  of  his  parents,  Harold  ought  to  be  much 
farther  advanced  than  he  is.  In  short,  Harold  was 
compared  with  himself  or  with  what  he  might  have 
been,  and  he  was  found  wanting.  Therefore,  he 
was  called  "backward,"  was  nagged  by  his  mother 
and  twitted  by  his  teachers,  and  saved  only  from 


MEASURING   RODS  3 

open  rebellion  or  complete  depression  by  that  same 
blessed  mediocrity  which  called  down  all  the  con- 
demnation upon  his  head.  Possibly,  also,  his  kindly 
father  helped  by  his  comforting  way  of  hinting  to 
his  son  that,  though  he  was  not  so  brilliant  as  he  was 
expected  to  be,  yet  he  was  not  so  bad  as  he  might 
have  been. 

Harold  was  judged  by  the  individual  standard. 
That  means  that  any  one  who  is  not  developed  to 
his  fullest  capacity  is  retarded.  His  fullest  capacity 
is  what  he  might  have  been  according  to  the  judg- 
ment of  himself  or  of  others  who  know  him.  Ac- 
cording to  that  standard  all  sincere  persons  must 
feel  themselves  retarded;  for  none  of  us  will  affirm 
that  we  have  had  the  fullest  opportunity  possible, 
nor  that  we  have  availed  ourselves  fully  of  the  op- 
portunity we  did  have.  Hence,  by  that  standard,  yvt 
are  all  backward. 

The  Social  Standard  in  the  Home. — Quite  dif- 
ferent is  the  story  of  another  boy  who  lived  in  a 
family  of  two  brothers  and  two  sisters  in  an  ordi- 
nary home  where  the  children  had  the  usual  liberty 
to  follow  their  own  bent.  Ernest  was  the  unusual 
child.  He  was  the  dreamer  of  the  family,  so  called 
because  of  his  vacant  and  aimless  way  of  doing 
things  at  home.  At  an  age  when  his  brothers  and 
sisters  could  get  up  in  the  morning,  wash  their  faces, 
comb  their  hair,  and  dress  themselves  without  aid 
from  any  one,  helpless  Ernest  would  have  to  be 
pulled  out  of  bed  by  his  energetic  mother,  washed 


4  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

and  partly  dressed  by  her,  and  almost  driven  down 
to  breakfast.  When  he  went  to  school,  he  was 
usually  late  and  always  the  last.  The  distraction  of 
that  mother  can  well  be  imagined.  She  had  to  pre- 
pare breakfast  for  her  husband  who  had  to  go  to 
work,  and  get  ready  five  children  with  all  their  odds 
and  ends,  one  of  whom  was  so  exasperatingly  slow 
that  a  saint  would  be  driven  to  desperation  by  him. 
In  other  home  affairs,  Ernest  was  the  same.  He 
either  would  not  or  could  not  learn  to  do  the  chores 
required  of  him ;  he  could  hardly  ever  run  an  errand 
and  come  back  on  time;  he  would  forget  half  the 
articles  he  should  bring  from  the  store ;  he  dawdled 
over  everything;  he  never  touched  a  tool  or  per- 
formed a  piece  of  manual  work  heartily  and  ener- 
getically. He  was  never  so  happy  as  when  he  could 
curl  up  in  a  big  chair  or  sprawl  on  the  floor  over  a 
book. 

At  school  his  reputation  was  different.  While 
still  slow-moving  and  phlegmatic,  his  mind  worked 
with  remarkable  precision;  his  ideas  were  translu- 
cent ;  his  memory  retentive ;  knowledge  came  easily 
to  him;  lessons  were  treated  seriously,  and  though 
Ernest  took  his  own  time  about  beginning  them, 
once  he  was  started,  his  attention  was  absorbing  and 
he  never  stopped  studying  until  the  printed  word 
was  a  part  of  the  fiber  of  his  being.  As  a  result,  he 
was  easily  the  best  pupil  of  his  class,  the  delight  of 
his  teachers,  the  pride  of  the  school.  At  home,  his 
practical  father  and  mother  shook  their  heads  in 


MEASURING   RODS  5 

grave  doubt ;  at  school  his  teachers  predicted  for  him 
a  rosy  future. 

Was  Ernest  really  backward  or  not  ?  What  is  the 
reason  for  such  a  clash  of  judgments?  Simply  this : 
he  was  the  victim  of  a  double  standard  of  judg- 
ment in  retardation.  At  home  he  was  behind  his 
brothers  and  sisters  in  self-help  and  chores.  He 
learned  how  to  do  them  slowly  and  he  continued  to 
do  them  slowly  and  slovenly  after  he  learned  them. 
At  school  he  was  deliberate  in  his  study  but  he  was 
gifted  with  one  of  those  rare  minds  that  proceeds 
without  a  halt  in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  and 
retains  without  a  flaw  what  it  learns.  Therefore, 
in  the  long  run  he  learned  many  times  more  than  the 
other  pupils.  As  a  result,  at  home,  he  was  "re- 
tarded''; at  school,  "advanced." 

More  Accurate  Standards. — Because  family 
judgments  are  lacking  in  exactness,  men  have  tried 
to  formulate  others.  Because  a  child  goes  to  school 
and  because  in  school  backwardness  becomes  such  a 
vital  matter,  the  problem  of  pedagogical  retardation 
has  received  much  attention.  Two  general  stand- 
ards or  criteria  for  judging  pedagogical  retardation 
have  been  used.  The  first,  called  the  age-and-grade 
method,  calls  all  children  normal  who  are  six  years 
old  and  in  the  first  grade,  or  seven  years  old  and  in 
the  second  grade,  and  so  on ;  but  in  actual  practise  it 
allows  one  year  more  than  the  usually  allotted  time 
for  a  grade  before  calling  a  child  retarded.  Gen- 
eralized, the  matter  might  be  stated  thus:   Every 


6  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

child  that  begins  school  at  the  legal  age  and  is  pro- 
moted regularly  with  its  class  is  normal ;  every  child 
who  is  two  years  or  more  behind  the  grade  it  should 
be  in  for  its  age  is  backward.  The  two-years'  allow- 
ance instead  of  one  is  made  because  the  legal  age  for 
entering  school  varies  with  locality;  because  again 
some  children  start  to  school  six  months  or  more 
after  their  legal  age  for  entrance;  and  because,  still 
further,  it  has  been  found  that  a  smaller  allowance 
would  place  an  overwhelmingly  large  number  of 
school  children  in  the  backward  list.  Even  allowing 
the  two-year  rule,  about  one-third  of  the  school  chil- 
dren in  the  United  States  are  retarded. 

The  Second  Criterion  is  the  Progress  of  the 
Scholar. — According  to  this  standard  a  normal 
pupil  is  one  who  takes  one  year,  or  the  regularly 
scheduled  time,  and  no  more,  to  complete  a  grade, 
no  matter  how  old  he  is  when  he  starts  to  school.  At 
first  sight  this  seems  to  be  a  much  juster  criterion. 
For  it  would  appear,  and  it  has  been  continually  ar- 
gued, that  the  older  child  who  begins  school-life 
later  than  he  ought  legally  to  do  will  make  more 
rapid  progress  in  his  work  and  ultimately  either 
catch  up  with  or  else  pass  by  the  younger  pupil.  The 
two  sides  of  the  question  have  been  treated  by  Doc- 
tor Leonard  Ayres,  who  comes  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  two  methods  really  do  not  disagree  very  ma- 
terially in  their  results.  One  is  as  fair  to  the  facts 
as  the  other.  "Neither  the  age  standard  nor  the 
progress  standard  of  measuring  retardation,"  says 


MEASURING   RODS  7 

Doctor  Ay  res,  "exaggerates  the  extent  of  the  evil. 
On  the  average,  results  for  a  considerable  number 
of  cities  are  equal  by  both  methods."  The  whole 
problem  which  at  first  sight  seems  reducible  to  such 
simple  terms,  turns  out  to  be  exceedingly  complex. 
It  will  take  years  of  patient  labor  to  arrive  at  cer- 
tain and  well-accepted  results. 

The  Standards  of  the  Playground. — In  the  case 
of  Ernest  just  described,  it  will  be  noted  that  both 
his  parents  and  his  teachers  tacitly  assumed  that  the 
real  criterion  of  backwardness  lay  beyond  his  school 
and  his  home  in  the  great  world  in  which  he  would 
work  out  his  ultimate  success  in  life.  His  parents, 
knowing  only  one  avenue  to  success  and  that  man- 
ual labor,  were  very  dubious  about  their  dreaming 
son's  future.  His  teachers,  victims  of  the  limita- 
tions of  their  profession,  assumed  that  there  was 
also  only  one  road  to  success  and  that  lay  through 
book-learning. 

Much  more  significant  for  the  future,  it  seems  to 
me,  is  the  estimate  made  of  a  child  by  his  fellows  on 
the  playground.  There  are  many  reasons  for  this, 
but  I  will  point  out  only  two.  First,  regarding  the 
child  himself,  he  is  acting  spontaneously ;  he  is  urged 
on  by  the  forces  resident  within  himself;  he  is  try- 
ing, all  unconscious  of  theories  about  education,  or 
any  future  ambitions,  or  any  artificial  rewards  or 
punishments,  to  express  all  that  is  in  him.  Further, 
it  is  his  own  world  in  which  he  is  making  his  place. 
Therefore,  it  fits  him  better  than  any  other  that  he 


8  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

IS  compelled  to  live  in.  Taking  these  two  phased  of 
play  together,  we  see  the  child  as  he  is.  We  can 
therefore  make  a  better  and  surer  estimate  of  him 
than  when  he  only  partially  exhibits  his  real  nature. 
We  know  that  in  play  he  is  not  holding  back  re- 
serves of  energies;  that  he  is  not  failing  because  he 
lacks  interest,  because  he  is  indifferent  through  wil- 
fulness or  a  desire  to  do  something  else.  In  play 
he  expresses  his  last  atom  of  energy;  he  will  run 
his  race,  or  chase  his  ball,  until  he  falls  in  his  tracks. 
All  of  us  have  heard  of  girls  who  dropped  dead 
jumping  the  rope.  None  of  us  has  ever  heard  of  a 
girl  who  dropped  dead  washing  dishes.  No  girl 
can.  She  will  faint  first  and  so  save  her  life.  Play 
alone  can  exhaust  all  her  energies.  Therefore,  we 
can  judge  the  child  more  truly  on  the  playground 
than  anywhere  else,  both  for  the  present  and  the  fu- 
ture.   Still,  the  judgment  is  our  judgment. 

Another  reason  why  the  play  standard  is  valuable 
IS  this:  from  it  we  get  the  judgment  of  the  child's 
peers.  Their  judgment  is  not  explicit;  perhaps  they 
may  never  have  had  the  slightest  conscious  acquaint- 
ance with  retardation  in  their  lives,  nor  even  know 
how  to  pronounce  the  word;  they  may  not  know 
that  a  comrade  is  backward,  but  they  feel  it,  and 
act  it.  As  they  react  upon  one  another  in  their  jos- 
tling play- world  each  atom  of  humanity  inevitably 
settles  into  its  proper  place  with  the  fatality  of  po- 
tatoes on  the  way  to  market.  As  the  forces  of  na- 
ture fit  the  stars  to  their  undeviating  orbits  and  the 


MEASURING   RODS  9 

glaciers  to  their  rocky  beds,  so  do  these  youngsters 
fit  each  companion  to  his  groove.  Such  classifica- 
tions of  children  are  as  accurate  as  they  are  uncon- 
scious and  as  significant  as  they  are  unprejudiced. 
Fathers  and  mothers  may  be  blinded  by  their  love, 
teachers  by  the  mechanics  of  their  profession,  and 
neighbors  by  their  ambitions  for  their  own  offspring, 
but  the  clear-eyed  citizens  of  boy-ville  and  girl-ville 
look  on  one  another  without  pride  or  prejudice  and 
judge  one  another  without  fear  or  favor  in  the  larg- 
est and  most  general  aspects  of  their  lives. 
/  Not  too  much  weight  can,  therefore,  be  given  to 
the  place  secured  by  a  child  in  his  own  world  of  un- 
supervised play.  The  difficulty  of  applying  such 
judgments  to  our  problem  lies  in  the  fact  that  they 
so  far  have  not  been  formulated.  They  are  not  only 
vague  but  unexpressed  in  language  or  symbol.  As 
yet,  no  genius  among  adults  has  arisen  to  make  them 
exact,  to  transform  them  into  systems  and  invent 
apparatus  for  making  the  standards  of  the  play- 
ground applicable  to  mental  diagnosis. 

Science  Will  Refine  Upon  Popular  Standards, 
— Science  may  come  and  observe  these  popular 
judgments;  she  may  some  day  take  them  and  refine 
them  and  erect  them  into  systems,  but  it  is  doubtful 
if  she  can  ever  really  improve  upon  them.  The  rea- 
son for  her  helplessness  is  to  be  found  in  the  vague- 
ness and  incomprehensiveness  of  the  * 'general  intel- 
ligence" to  be  measured.  What  is  intelligence?  Is 
it  a  single  faculty?     Surely  not;  for  idiots  often 


10  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

possess  marvelous  musical  and  mathematical  facul- 
ties. Is  it  reason?  Philosophers  reason  to  perfec- 
tion, yet  are  the  most  impracticable  people;  so  im- 
practicable that  they  may  starve  where  another  man 
will  live  well.  For  witness,  read  DeQuincey's  ac- 
count of  his  starving  period  in  London,  when  he 
walked  the  streets  for  days,  being  kept  alive  only 
by  the  earnings  of  his  Anne,  and  never  once  did  it 
occur  to  him  even  to  ask  for  work !  Is  intelligence 
one  faculty  or  many  faculties?  Is  it  not  more  a 
proper  balance  among  many  faculties?  If  it  is,  and 
that  seems  to  be  the  truest  answer,  then  immediately 
it  can  be  seen  how  difficult  it  will  always  be  to  meas- 
ure this  balance  under  artificial  conditions.  Added 
to  this  is  the  fact  that  any  mental  examination  must 
also  labor  under  the  circumstance  that  even  in  the 
smallest  bit  of  human  knowledge  all  the  mental 
processes  are  involved ;  that  it  is  impossible  to  isolate 
reasoning,  or  imagination,  or  volition,  and  to  con- 
sider each  one  separately  and  apart  from  other 
processes,  as  in  an  ideal  laboratory  experiment.  The 
child  is  a  unit ;  his  consciousness  is  a  unit.  Certain 
phases  of  the  mental  process  may  be  emphasized  at 
times,  but  the  others  are  there  and,  what  is  of  su- 
preme importance  to  the  teacher  or  parent,  these, 
for  the  moment  unobserved  and  unimportant  proc- 
esses, may  be  the  very  ones  that  will  make  the  child 
eventually  a  famous  and  successful  man.  For  ex- 
ample, success  in  life  most  frequently  depends  on 
coolness  and  readiness  in  times  of  great  crises.    Ar- 


MEASURING    RODS  11 

tificial  tests  in  clinics  and  schoolrooms  can  not,  by 
their  nature,  afford  such  situations,  while  play  pro- 
duces over  and  over  again  as  a  part  of  its  very  es- 
sence critical  moments  full  of  originality  and  burn- 
ing with  excitement. 

The  Binet-Simon  Standard. — Besides  the  fore- 
going standards  many  others  have  been  worked  out 
for  the  more  accurate  measurement  of  the  typical 
child's  mind.  One  of  the  most  noted  in  America  is 
the  system  of  the  Frenchman  Binet,  made  famous 
here  chiefly  by  the  extensive  investigations  carried 
on  by  Doctor  Goddard  of  the  training  school  at 
Vineland,  New  Jersey.  These  tests  attempt  to  de- 
scribe in  about  five  simple  ways  the  normal  child  of 
any  age  up  to  fifteen  years.  The  descriptions  are 
proposed  in  the  form  of  questions  or  tasks  and  in 
the  results  thus  obtained.  The  so-called  normal  child 
will  answer  the  questions  and  perform  the  tasks,  or 
certain  proportions  of  them,  in  certain  ways.  The 
backward  child  will  not  perform  the  tasks  or  answer 
the  questions  suitable  to  his  age,  but  only  those  suita- 
ble to  a  younger  age.  These  standards  have  the 
qualities  of  simplicity  and  of  giving  their  measure- 
ments in  the  ages  of  normal  children. 

The  danger,  illustrated  by  all  the  examples  in  this 
chapter,  of  judging  persons  to  be  backward  when 
tested  by  only  one  standard,  appears  strikingly  in 
the  following  single  test  by  the  Binet  method.  A 
class  of  school-teachers  at  a  summer  school  were 
tried  by  the  twelve-year-old  tests  in  the  older  Binet 


12  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

series.  Not  one  of  twenty-five  adult,  well-trained, 
experienced  teachers,  whose  mentality  was  unim- 
peachable, could  pass  all  the  tests  and  some  of  them 
failed  ignominiously  in  a  majority  of  them.  This 
statement  of  an  experiment  is  not  intended  as  a  crit- 
icism of  the  Binet  tests  themselves,  but  as  an  illus- 
tration again  of  the  vital  truth  not  too  often  to  be 
reiterated  that  backwardness  itself  and  the  signifi- 
cance of  backwardness  depends  upon  the  standard 
used  to  measure  it. 

The  Standards  Should  Be  Clearly  Stated  and 
Studied. — So  it  appears  that  the  standards  for 
measuring  backwardness  are  many.  This  condition 
arises  from  the  nature  of  the  case.  Unlike  meas- 
urements of  spatial  or  material  objects  we  are 
dealing  with  more  or  less  non-spatial  and  extremely 
complex  dimensions.  We  can  not  take  our  child  to 
some  place  where  a  norm  is  kept  and  compare  him 
with  that  ideal.  If  we  had  to  measure  a  stick  we 
could  lay  down  a  yard-measure  upon  it,  and  see  if 
they  agreed.  If  our  measuring  stick  was  in  doubt, 
we  could  take  it  to  Washington  and  have  it  tested  to 
the  millionth  of  an  inch  and  be  sure  that  it  was  ac- 
curate. Unfortunately,  in  dealing  with  living  chil- 
dren, many  difficulties  are  in  the  way  of  such  a 
simple  process.  First,  much  of  our  measuring  is 
subjective  and  not  objective;  secondly,  the  child  is 
such  a  complex  institution,  so  fearfully  and  wonder- 
fully made  that  to  classify  one  child  requires  lit- 
erally innumerable  measurements ;  thirdly,  and  espe- 


MEASURING   RODS  13 

cially,  no  real,  live,  normal  child  exists  in  all  the 
world  to  whom  we  can  compare  our  backward  child. 
If  only  somewhere,  in  some  sort  of  an  institution,  a 
whole  row  of  perfectly  normal  children,  complete 
for  their  age  in  all  their  physical,  mental,  moral  and 
social  qualities,  were  kept  on  exhibition,  and  we 
could  take  any  suspected  child  there  and  compare 
him  with  the  model  of  the  same  age,  then  our  prob- 
lem would  be  marvelously  simplified.  But  sucH 
norms  do  not  exist — "Thank  goodness,"  we  may 
almost  say  under  our  breath.  For  if  they  did  all 
mental  progress  would  be  at  an  end.  Beyond  them 
our  children  could  not  hope  to  go.  Woe,  yea,  even 
worse  woe  than  now,  unto  any  child  who  would  dare 
to  be  original !  No,  no  standard  of  childish  perfec- 
tion exists ;  and  though  on  that  account  our  problem 
of  measuring  backwardness  is  made  inimitably 
harder,  on  the  whole  we  agree  with  the  child-world 
and  are  glad  it  is  so. 

The  Meaning  of  Backwardness. — From  the 
foregoing  discussion  two  important  questions  may 
arise.  First,  what  is  backwardness  ?  It  is  altogether 
a  relative  matter  and  not  an  absolute  condition.  It 
is  not  a  mental  defect,  nor  a  physical  defect,  nor  a 
judgment  of  Providence,  nor  a  quality  of  the  indi- 
vidual inherited  or  acquired.  It  is  merely  a  relation. 
The  backward  child  is  behind  somebody  or  lower 
than,  he  ought  to  be  in  some  arbitrary  scale,  accord- 
ing to  somebody's  judgment.  The  mere  fact  that  a 
child  is  backward  is  seen  immediately  as  soon  as  the 


14  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

standard  of  measurement  is  stated.  Until  that  is 
stated  backwardness  in  itself  and  by  itself  has  prac- 
tically no  significance.  That  brings  up  the  second 
question:  Is  backwardness  always  to  be  deplored? 
Not  by  any  means. 

To  be  behind  does  not  always  mean  something  un- 
desirable. Sometimes  it  keeps  children  out  of  dan- 
ger, as  it  did  the  poor  little  cripple  who  hobbled  along 
behind  the  other  children  following  the  Pied  Piper, 
and  so  got  to  the  mountain  too  late  to  be  swallowed 
up  forever.  That  backward  child  might  be  taken  as 
an  example  for  backwardness  in  many  other  re- 
spects. "Your  boy  is  backward,"  begins  the  school- 
visitor,  and  mother's  face  falls  and  her  forehead 
wrinkles,  *'in  smoking,"  or  "swearing,"  adds  the  vis- 
itor, and  mother's  face  brightens.  All  depends  on 
what  a  child  is  backward  in;  and  not  on  the  mere 
fact  that  he  is  backward.  To  express  it  otherwise, 
all  depends  on  the  standard  of  backwardness.  Be- 
fore the  standard  is  known  the  word  "backward" 
means  just  one  thing :  the  backward  one  is  lagging 
behind  something.  As  soon  as  the  standard  is 
known,  then  the  implication  is  clear,  and  the  back- 
wardness is  seen  to  be  desirable  or  undesirable.  I 
have  actually  seen  a  young  girl  of  fascinating  appear- 
ance and  an  excellent  mind  brought  to  a  psycholog- 
ical clinic  because,  according  to  the  strait  and  strict 
standards  of  conduct  in  her  community  and  the 
people  who  had  her  under  their  control,  she  dis- 


MEASURING   RODS  15 

played  tendencies  to  degeneracy.  The  truth  was  that 
the  girl  was  simply  forward  in  company,  and  for- 
ward too,  only  according  to  the  exceedingly  con- 
servative judgment  of  her  community.  Certainly  it 
would  have  been  better  for  her,  and  for  all  girls,  to 
be  ''backward''  rather  than  "forward"  in  society. 

In  one  of  the  old  school-readers  there  used  to  be 
a  story  about  a  famine,  a  bread-line,  a  crowd  of  el- 
bowing children,  and  one  little  girl,  "with  patched 
clothes  neat  and  clean,"  who  always  waited  with  a 
heavenly  meekness  till  all  the  other  children  had 
seized  the  largest  loaves  from  the  unscientifically 
managed  charity  and  had  departed,  leaving  Mar- 
garet to  take  the  last  and  smallest  loaf.  She  was  a 
backward  child,  but  her  backwardness  was  not  the 
kind  to  be  condemned.  Indeed,  such  a  fine  quality 
was  it  that  one  day  the  rich  baker  slipped  a  gold- 
piece  into  the  smallest  loaf  and  when  backward 
Margaret,  as  usual,  took  what  was  rejected,  she 
found  a  fortune,  and  received  from  her  benefactor 
both  the  full  right  to  the  coin  and  a  homily  upon 
the  virtue  of  backwardness.  With  this  old-fashioned 
tale  we  will  leave  the  standards  of  backwardness 
and  the  many  measuring-rods  applied  to  this  class  of 
children,  hoping  that  the  truth  of  the  lesson  will 
come  out  with  fresh  force,  that  all  our  modern  agi- 
tation on  retardation  will  not  obscure,  namely,  that 
backwardness  is  not  wholly  or  always  bad  and  that 
it  needs  to  be  studied  in  each  individual  case  to  de- 


16  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

termine  its  exact  nature.  To  put  our  inductive  study 
into  a  form  easily  assimilable  we  append  the  follow- 
ing summary  of  standards : 

I.  Individual  Standards. — A  backward  child  is  one 
who  is  not  so  far  advanced  as  he  ought  to  be, 
when  his  birth  and  opportunities  are  considered. 
II.  Social  Standards. 

A.  Popular  Standards. 

1.  In  the   Home. — A  backward  child  in  the 

home  is  one  who  learns  at  a  later  age  than 
that  of  his  brothers  and  sisters  how  to 
walk,  talk,  eat,  dress  himself,  etc.  His 
parents'  judgment  is  the  measure. 

2.  In  the  Neighborhood. — A  backward  child  is 

one  who,  in  the  judgment  of  the  neighbors-, 
is  behind  the  other  children  in  their  activi- 
ties. Neighbors  usually  judge  less  merci- 
fully than  parents  and  the  backwardness  is 
more  pronounced  if  it  is  noticed  by  the 
neighbors. 

3.  On  the  Playground. — A  backward  child  is 

one  who  can  not  play  the  games  children 
of  his  age  can  play,  and  who  therefore 
plays  with  younger  children. 

B.  Scientific  Standards. 

1.  Among  Nations. — A  child  is  backward  only 

when  he  falls  behind  the  average  for  his 
own  race  or  nation.  This  is  the  anthro- 
pological standard. 

2.  In  School. 

a.  The  Age  Standard. — ^A  backward  child  is 
one  who,  from  any  cause  whatsoever, 
is  two  years  or  more  behind  the  grade 
he  ought  to  be  in  for  his  age.  The  ped- 
agogical standard  is  a  child  who  begins 
school  at  the  legal  age  and  is  promoted 
regularly  with  his  class.     Pedagogical 


MEASURING   RODS  17 

retardation  is  a  fact,  and  has  nothing  to 
do  with  causes,  is  not  always  a  detri- 
ment, and  should  not  be  condemned  un- 
til the  causes  are  known. 
b.  The   Progress   Standard. — ^According  to 
this  standard  a  backward  child  is  one 
who  takes  longer  than  the  regularly 
scheduled  time  to  complete  one  grade, 
no  matter  how  old  he  is.    In  the  long 
run,  with  many  pupils,  these  two  stand- 
ards give  about  the  same  results. 
3.  In  General  Intelligence. — ^According  to  sev- 
eral   systems    like   the    Simon-Binet,    De 
Sanctis,  and  others,  a  backward  child  is 
one  who  can  not  answer  certain  sets  of 
prescribed  questions  and  do  certain  tasks 
presumably  fitted  to  his  years.    The  stand- 
ard child  is  one  who  can  do  these  tasks  and 
give  these  answers.* 


*  Much  of  the  material  in  Chaps.  1  and  8  has  appeared  in  the 
author's  The  Conservation  of  the  Child,  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co., 
Phila.,  which  treats  the  diagnosis  of  backward  children  fully. 


CHAPTER  II 

VARIETIES  OF  BACKWARD  CHILDREN 

SOME  years  ago  two  new  pupils  arrived  on  the 
same  day  in  the  special  class  of  a  public  school. 
Whence  they  came,  by  what  pedagogic  highways  and 
byways  they  had  reached  their  destination  and  what 
educational  vicissitudes  they  had  suffered  on  the 
journey,  are  only  of  secondary  importance  to  our 
purpose  of  tracing  their  succeeding  history.  It  is 
sufficient  to  say  that  their  schooling  began  at  the 
usual  age,  in  the  usual  public  schools,  and  had  lasted 
six  years,  leaving  them  both  at  the  age  of  twelve  in 
the  fourth  grade.  To  all  appearances,  they  sprang 
from  about  the  same  social  conditions.  Their  dress 
and  manners  marked  them  as  coming  from  ordinary 
homes  of  working  people.  Their  names  we  will  call 
John  and  Mary  because  those  are  not  their  names. 
Carelessly  viewed,  they  were  just  two  quite  ordi- 
nary, retarded  children,  superficially  alike,  noted 
only  for  the  fact  that  they  helped  to  swell  the  thirty- 
three  and  seven-tenths  per  cent,  of  backward  chil- 
dren in  American  schools. 

Their  Personal  Appearance. — To  the  hasty  ob- 
server all  difference  in  personal  appearance  favored 

18 


VARIETIES  19 

Mary.  She  was  cleaner  and  neater,  her  face  and 
hands  were  washed,  and  her  hair  carefully  parted, 
smoothed  and  tied  back  with  a  red  ribbon  in  a  large 
bow,  the  loops  of  which  stood  out  on  each  side  of 
her  head  like  butterfly  wings.  She  was  pretty,  quiet, 
ladylike  in  her  manners,  and  very  well  behaved.  She 
came  to  the  special  teacher  with  a  good  report  for 
conduct  and  much  praise  for  her  serious  efforts  to 
learn.  As  she  sat  there  on  the  seat  that  first  day, 
Miss  M.,  the  special  teacher,  found  her  heart  going 
out  to  her  in  a  quiet  pity,  and  she  made  up  her  mind 
then  and  there  that  she  would  save  this  fine  girl  from 
any  further  stigma  of  failure,  if  it  was  at  all  pos- 
sible. 

John  was  not  nearly  so  fortunate.  His  personal 
appearance  was  altogether  against  him.  Boy-like, 
his  face  and  hands  were  not  very  clean,  his  hair  was 
unkempt,  his  clothes  were  untidily  worn.  His  man- 
ner and  manners  were  both  bad.  His  face  wore  a 
sullen  and  sometimes  defiant  look,  and  when  he 
moved,  it  was  with  a  listless,  unwilling,  slouchy  gait. 
When  he  spoke  his  voice  was  peculiarly  flat  and 
dead,  but  frequently  rising  quickly  and  easily  into 
a  querulous,  irritated  tone.  The  shape  of  his  nose 
and  his  open  mouth  were  sure  signs  of  adenoids, 
past  or  present,  which  his  teacher  later  found,  had 
been  just  recently  removed,  so  recently  that  the  other 
signs — crooked  teeth,  dulled  hearing,  stoop  shoul- 
ders, flat  chest  and  general  debility,  with  the  lus- 
terless  eye  and  vacuous  face — were  still  very  much 


20  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

in  evidence.  He  came  with  no  such  good  report  for 
conduct  as  Mary  had  brought.  By  his  former  teach- 
ers he  was  counted  careless,  irritable,  inattentive, 
and  had  been  getting  worse  instead  of  better  in  the 
last  years  of  his  schooling,  despite  the  hope  of  im- 
provement through  the  adenoid  operation.  The 
hope  was  slow  to  materialize  and  John  was  sent  to 
the  special  class. 

The  Results. — Space  and  time  will  not  permit 
me  to  give  every  detail  of  these  two  children's  peda- 
gogical treatment  and  training  in  the  next  two  years. 
It  must  suffice  to  say  that  they  received  the  teaching 
in  a  modern  special  class.  The  manual  work  was 
first  tried.  Here  in  the  beginning  Mary  distinctly 
excelled  John.  She  seemed  to  have  a  positive  genius 
for  basket  weaving.  The  first  one  she  ever  produced 
in  her  life — a  small,  bowl-like  structure — was  as 
neatly  woven,  as  symmetrically  turned  and  shaped 
as  any  teacher's  heart  could  desire,  and  loud  were 
the  praises,  both  in  school  and  at  home,  that  the 
amiable  and  lovable  Mary  received  for  her  evident 
skill  and  application. 

Poor  John  started  bravely,  but  his  interest  slack- 
ened, his  fingers  got  in  his  way,  he  made  mistakes, 
became  excited,  then  irritated,  had  to  do  it  over 
again,  and  finally  finished  a  pitiable  specimen,  out 
of  shape,  begrimed  with  sweat  and  tears,  and  not 
fit  for  exhibition  anywhere.  It  was  a  sorry  sight 
though  the  extremities  of  its  faults  were  mercifully 
covered  by  the  patient  charity  of  his  teacher  and  her 


VARIETIES  21 

assurance,  into  which  her  heart  could  not  enter  very 
warmly,  that  he  would  do  better  next  time. 

In  many  other  exercises  it  was  not  different.  Wher- 
ever rhythm  in  any  form  was  involved,  Mary  fell 
into  it  naturally  and  smoothly.  In  singing  she  was 
not  only  quick  to  catch  the  tune,  and  to  follow  it  in 
her  sweet,  clear  voice,  but  she  readily  committed  the 
words  to  memory.  She  could  recite  poetry,  too,  and 
loved  the  weekly  memory-gems  required  in  school. 
Her  reading  was  excellent,  in  fact,  good  enough  to 
permit  her  to  read  easily  in  a  higher  grade.  Her 
writing,  too,  was  good  in  the  sense  that  the  letters 
were  well  formed  and  fair  to  the  eye.  On  the  whole, 
as  Miss  M.  said,  if  it  had  not  been  for  her  hopeless- 
ness in  arithmetic  and  a  certain  lack  of  vigor  in  at- 
tacking original  situations  and  in  dealing  with  ab- 
stract problems  of  all  kinds,  Mary  was  one  of  the 
most  satisfactory  pupils  in  the  class.  At  least,  Miss 
M.  said  that  at  first.  In  the  course  of  two  years 
she  was  surprised  to  note  how  little  Mary  improved 
in  these  respects.  By  dint  of  much  personal  atten- 
tion in  school  and  at  home,  she  did  make  some  prog- 
ress. Always  docile  and  earnest,  she  won  sympathy 
and  approbation  everywhere.  As  it  was  evident  that 
she  could  never  learn  much  arithmetic,  it  was  de- 
cided, that  since  she  was  a  girl,  she  should  be  pro- 
moted without  it.  Her  other  mental  work,  depend- 
ent upon  memory,  was  fair,  and  her  manual  work 
always  most  excellent.  For  that  she  was  highly 
praised,  and  from  that  commendation,  together  with 


22  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

the  adolescent  ripening  of  her  mental  powers,  came 
a  new-found  confidence,  which  diffused  itself 
through  all  her  other  efforts,  and  united  with  her 
unfailing  willingness,  carried  her  back  into  the 
grades,  and  at  fifteen  Mary  left  school,  not  grad- 
uated, but  with  the  praise  of  her  teachers  and  with 
no  suspicion  that  she  was  deficient  except  in  one  or 
two  restricted,  and,  to  a  girl,  not  very  important 
subjects.  Yet  within  two  years  after  Mary  left 
school  and  went  to  work  in  a  box  factory,  she  was 
sent  by  the  juvenile  court  to  an  institution  for  the 
feeble-minded  to  be  all  the  rest  of  her  life,  a  ward  of 
the  state,  an  apathetic  moron,  wrecked  in  life  and 
morals,  a  source  of  sorrow  to  her  parents,  and  a  po- 
tential danger  to  society. 

As  for  John,  he  stumbled  along  through  the  first 
months  of  his  special  class  with  varying  successes 
and  failures,  in  which  failures  predominated.  The 
effect  of  his  failures  upon  the  patience  of  his 
teacher  was  heightened  by  his  irritability,  wilfulness, 
carelessness,  and  general  bad  behavior.  Miss  M. 
struggled  on  with  him  only  because  a  few  gleams  of 
ability  here  and  there  occasionally  flashed  out  of  his 
otherwise  bunglesome  efforts.  Basket  weaving,  he 
did  not  like;  singing,  he  hated  with  a  schoolboy's 
lusty  hatred  of  anything  cultural  and  beautiful. 
Wood-working  was  more  to  his  liking  and  his  ac- 
complishments therein  really  saved  his  career.  As 
he  worked  at  carpentry  through  the  months,  his 
physical  condition  improved;  he  took  pride  in  his 


VARIETIES  23 

work ;  he  was  anxious  to  be  at  it  and  he  did  his  les- 
sons in  books  faithfully  so  as  to  get  to  the  bench. 
Gradually  his  whole  being  and  activities  improved 
and  in  two  years  he  went  back  to  the  grades,  gripped 
the  meaning  of  things  with  vigor,  developed  into  a 
healthy  boy,  entered  a  manual  training  high  school 
at  sixteen,  and  after  one  year  there  went  out  into 
the  world  to  become  a  joiner-apprentice  in  a  car 
shop,  where  he  is  to-day,  a  promising  young  man. 

What  was  the  difference  between  these  two  that 
made  such  a  tragic  difference  in  their  lives?  Simply 
and  only  the  difference  between  permanent  and  tem- 
porary retardation,  between  feeble-mindedness  and 
pedagogical  backwardness  due  to  removable  defects ; 
and  this  difference  might  have  been  detected  by  the 
skilled  teacher  and  much  of  its  terrible  consequences 
to  the  girl  and  to  her  parents  and  to  society  might 
have  been  anticipated  and  prevented.  More  than 
that,  these  are  only  two  of  the  many  cases  identical 
in  the  one  great  essential,  coming  before  the  teach- 
ers of  our  schools  every  day.  Because  teachers  do 
not  understand  that  from  one-half  of  one  per  cent, 
to  four  per  cent,  of  their  pupils  are  feeble-minded, 
and  because  they  do  not  have  the  ability  to  recognize 
slight  degrees  of  feeble-mindedness,  they  not  infre- 
quently labor  with  such  unfortunate  pupils  only  to 
hide  their  defects  temporarily  and  to  expose  them 
eventually  to  the  rigors  of  the  world  peculiar  to  such 
defective  mental  and  moral  natures. 

Two  Great  Varieties  of  Retardation. — Now 


24  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

that  we  have  seen  something  of  the  meanings  attach- 
ing to  the  word  ^'backward,"  we  will  turn  to  a  study 
of  the  varieties  of  the  phenomenon  itself.  Com- 
plexity and  not  simplicity  confronts  us,  a  complexity 
in  the  condition  itself  to  be  overcome  as  far  as  pos- 
sible by  simplicity  in  classification.  For  our  purpose 
a  very  simple  and  untechnical  classification  of  back- 
ward children  might  be  made,  one  that  will  both 
seize  upon  the  essential  difference  between  two  great 
classes  of  the  retarded  ones,  and  will  also  at  the 
same  time  serve  the  practical  end  of  education.  That 
end  is  the  future  of  the  backward  child.  We  want 
him  to  grow  up  and  take  his  place  in  the  world  as  a 
self-supporting  and  self-respecting  citizen.  Can  he 
do  it?  With  all  his  present  defects,  mental  and 
physical,  can  he  be  so  treated  and  so  taught  that 
eventually  he  will  become  a  full-fledged  citizen  of 
the  republic?  That  is  our  practical  question  and 
upon  it  we  can  base  our  simple  classification  of  all 
backward  children  into  those  temporarily  backward 
and  those  permanently  backward.  The  first  will  in- 
clude all  those  children  retarded  on  account  of  re- 
movable defects;  the  second  will  include  all  that 
growing  army  of  unfortunate  little  people  whose  de- 
fects are  deeply  seated  within  their  very  being  be- 
yond the  present  philosophy  of  man  to  understand- 
Hence,  it  is  seen  at  once  how  vital  it  is  to  all  con- 
cerned that  this  distribution  be  made  in  the  case  of 
every  backward  child,  and  be  made  as  early  as  pos- 
sible.   Upon  it  depends  all  its  future  treatment  and 


VARIETIES  25 

training.  Without  such  a  distinction  teachers  and 
parents  may  go  on  trying  to  teach  their  charges 
things  impossible  to  learn  and  things  positively  hurt- 
ful, and  at  the  same  time  rob  them  of  the  oppor- 
tunity to  learn  other  things  for  which  their  capacities 
are  suited  and  through  which  they  would  reach  their 
highest  attainments  and  most  joyful  service.  On 
this  point  too  much  emphasis  can  not  possibly  be 
laid.  I  have  seen  a  child  brought  apparently  to  the 
lowest  stages  of  idiocy  by  the  neglect  of  her  par- 
ents who  deemed  it  impossible  to  teach  her  because 
she  was  permanently  retarded.  Yet  that  same  child, 
under  medication  and  with  skilful  teaching,  changed 
within  a  few  years  to  a  most  polite,  beautiful  little 
lady,  capable  of  rudimentary  reading  and  writing 
and  seemingly  at  that  time  destined  to  grow  into 
full  womanhood.  On  the  other  hand,  I  have  seen 
a  child  driven  by  her  mother  into  almost  complete 
mental  bankruptcy  by  attempting  to  force  the  poor 
benumbed  mind  to  read  and  write  and  do  arith- 
metic when  such  mysteries  would  be  ever  beyond  the 
ken  of  this  manually  capable  and  housewifely  little 
girl.  In  both  cases  the  children  suffered ;  one  from 
neglect  and  the  other  from  overstraining,  and  both 
from  the  same  cause,  namely,  the  lack  of  under- 
standing that  differences,  absolute  and  lifelong,  exist 
among  backward  children. 

Further  Study  of  Temporarily  Retarded  Chil- 
dren.— After  we  have  made  this  basal  and  vital 
distinction  between  the  two  kinds  of  retarded  chil- 


26  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

dren,  we  have  still  further  sub-classifications  to 
make.  These  finer  divisions  chiefly  concern  the 
teacher.  They  have  arisen  from  the  needs  of  the 
class-room,  and  therefore  fit  in  very  well  with  our 
purpose  of  classifying  backward  children  by  their 
future  ability  to  support  themselves  in  ordinary  so- 
ciety. First,  some  of  these  children  begin  to  improve 
immediately  after  the  removal  of  their  defects.  For 
example,  a  retarded  girl  with  a  good  personal  history 
was  found  to  be  suffering  with  enlarged  tonsils,  poor 
eyes,  and  crooked  and  decayed  teeth.  Her  eyes  and 
tonsils  were  treated  and  almost  immediately  she 
showed  improvement  in  other  ways.  Her  appetite 
improved,  she  became  less  susceptible  to  colds,  her 
teeth  grew  straighter;  she  was  promoted  at  school 
and  maintained  her  position  in  her  class  without 
further  trouble. 

A  boy  nine  years  of  age,  after  going  to  school 
three  years,  had  reached  only  the  second  grade.  He 
was  good  in  some  studies.  He  usually  made  eighty 
to  ninety  per  cent,  in  spelling,  but  he  could  not  sub- 
tract twenty-five  from  fifty,  nor  eighteen  from 
twenty-five  orally.  He  could  say  over  words  in 
the  second  reader,  but  did  not  seem  to  obtain  any 
meaning  from  the  process.  His  teachers  stated 
that  he  was  not  interested  in  school  work  and  was 
very  careless  about  everything.  Possibly  there 
was  some  connection  between  his  carelessness  and 
his  habit  of  rising  at  5  A.  M.  to  deliver  papers, 
but  his  chief  trouble  lay  in  his  defective  vision. 


VARIETIES  27 

Twice  in  six  months  his  eyes  were  examined  and 
glasses  fitted  to  them  at  a  cHnic.  The  improvement 
was  immediate  and  continuous.  In  the  same  class 
with  the  same  teacher,  he  changed  entirely  and  ap- 
plied himself  so  well  that  he  became  a  good  scholar 
in  all  his  studies,  and  in  geography  and  history,  his 
former  bugbears,  he  secured  grades  of  eighty-five 
and  ninety-four  per  cent,  respectively.  He  repre- 
sents the  class  of  children  very  numerous  in  school 
whose  backwardness  is  due  to  physical  defects  and 
who  respond  immediately  to  proper  medical  treat- 
ments. 

A  similar  case  is  a  girl  nine  years  of  age,  in  the 
third  grade,  whose  retardation  was  not  marked 
enough  to  be  noted  in  school  but  marked  enough  to 
attract  the  notice  of  her  parents.  It  gave  them  some 
uneasiness  because  the  child  had  suffered  congestion 
of  the  brain  when  she  was  five  and  again  when  she 
was  eight,  and  because  they  feared  that  her  increas- 
ing backwardness  was  due  to  some  mental  derange- 
ment. 

An  examination  revealed  no  signs  of  mental  ab- 
normalities, but  it  did  reveal  poor  eyesight,  enlarged 
tonsils,  adenoids  and  a  consequent  sore  throat. 
When  the  adenoids  were  removed  and  her  eyes  fitted 
with  glasses,  the  child  changed  immediately  for  the 
better.  Her  health  improved  greatly.  The  signs 
of  nervousness  disappeared  and  with  them  her  dis- 
position changed  from  melancholy  to  cheerfulness, 
from  constant  irritability  to  normal  good  humor, 


28  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

and  her  conduct  from  disobedience  and  rebellion 
to  willing  and  happy  effort  to  please.  Her  mental 
improvement  was  equally  marked.  Lessons  that 
formerly  were  labored  over  with  weariness,  discour- 
agement and  tears,  now  came  easily.  Her  music  les- 
sons, formerly  an  equal  trial  to  her  and  her  mother, 
became  seasons  of  special  enjoyment.  So  rapidly 
did  she  advance  in  music  that  she  soon  surpassed  her 
mother  in  accomplishment.  All  of  this  change  was 
due  to  the  treatment  and  not  to  training.  Her  case 
illustrates  what  can  be  done  by  wise  and  watchful 
parents  who  look  for  causes  of  conduct  and  intelli- 
gently seek  remedies  at  children's  clinics  before  the 
advance  of  diseases  causes  trouble  at  school. 

Rapidly  Recoverable  Cases. — Jack,  at  eleven 
years,  promised  to  be  a  ne'er-do-well.  He  could  not 
learn  in  school.  He  was  discouraged  and  his  rela- 
tives were  discouraged,  too.  He  did  not  know  what 
was  the  matter  and  nobody  else  seemed  to  know. 
He  had  floundered  along  for  five  years  in  the  public 
school  of  his  small  town  and  was  only  in  the  second 
grade.  He  could  not  read  in  a  second  reader;  his 
spelling  was  poor;  his  grammar  was  atrocious;  his 
writing  a  combination  of  poor  spelling,  worse  gram- 
mar and  illegible  penmanship. 

Yet  he  was  a  good  boy,  obedient,  affectionate 
and  thoughtful  of  others.  He  loved  pets,  and  had  a 
dog,  some  rabbits  and  chickens,  all  of  which  he 
cared  for  faithfully.  He  built  them  pens,  and  fussed 
and  worked  with  them  every  spare  hour  he  had. 


VARIETIES  29 

At  eleven  years  of  age  he  was  brought  to  a  clinic 
by  his  mother.  They  lived  in  a  country  town  or  he 
would  bave  been  brought  before.  There  it  was 
found  he  had  enlarged  tonsils,  but  his  chief  trouble 
was  poor  eyesight.  His  tonsils  were  removed  and 
glasses  were  fitted  to  his  eyes  and  he  was  entered  in 
a  special  summer  class  in  the  city  in  which  his  physi- 
cal activities  were  given  free  opportunity.  He  was 
very  good  in  gymnastic  drills  and  in  swimming. 
Carpentry  also  served  to  rouse  his  dormant  facul- 
ties and  to  stimulate  his  interest  in  study.  With  his 
eyesight  improved  he  found  reading  much  easier 
and  took  to  simple  history.  In  six  weeks  he  went 
back  home,  and  in  the  fall  entered  the  regular  third 
grade,  where  his  progress  fully  satisfied  everybody. 
He  went  through  the  primary  grades,  and  at  sixteen, 
on  account  of  the  absence  of  his  father  from  home, 
he  took  full  charge  of  their  small  farm  and  ran  it 
successfully.  The  proper  diagnosis,  treatment,  and 
brief  special  training  changed  this  boy  from  a  tramp 
in  embryo  to  a  wholesome  and  worthy  member  of 
the  community,  capable  in  a  pinch,  of  becoming  the 
support  of  the  family. 

Jack  illustrates  a  second  group  among  tempora- 
rily retarded  children.  Unlike  the  first  group,  they 
do  not  show  immediate  improvement  on  removal 
of  their  physical  defects.  They  start  to  school,  fall 
behind  in  their  grades,  are  examined  and  found  to 
have  a  number  of  physical  defects,  or  to  be  badly 
situated  in  a  poor  neighborhood,  or  live  in  a  poor 


30  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

home  where  they  do  not  have  enough  to  eat.  When 
they  are  treated  medically  or  surgically,  or  removed 
from  their  bad  neighborhoods,  or  their  homes,  they 
then  require  manual  training  or  individualized  in- 
struction to  arouse  again  their  dormant  and  tem- 
porarily stagnated  faculties.  Such  children  improve 
and  eventually  return  to  their  regular  classes,  grad- 
uate from  school  and  go  out  into  the  world  ready  to 
make  a  living. 

The  Slowly  Recoverable. — ^Julia  was  a  dis- 
couraging pupil.  She  was  thirteen  years  old  with 
six  years  of  schooling  to  her  credit,  during  which 
many  and  sundry  teachers  had  wrought  upon  her 
to  see  what  they  might  make  of  her  meager  mind. 
Four  years  she  had  submitted  meekly  to  regular 
grade  instruction,  learning  a  little  at  first  and  then 
losing  that  little  gradually  until  she  went  into  a  spe- 
cial class.  For  two  years  individual  instruction, 
with  all  the  accessories  of  equipment  and  manual 
work,  were  brought  to  bear  upon  her  with  practi- 
cally no  results.  Then  she  was  taken  to  a  clinic  for 
diagnosis,  where  a  number  of  complications  were 
discovered. 

The  girl  was  very  small  for  her  age,  a  pale 
anemic  child,  with  bad  teeth,  poor  eyesight,  enlarged 
adenoids  and  tonsils.  She  was  dull  and  sleepy,  sub- 
ject to  spells  of  stubbornness,  heart-breaking  to  an 
ambitious  teacher,  but  otherwise  of  an  excellent 
moral  character.  Glasses  were  fitted  to  her  eyes, 
her  teeth  were  treated,  and  her  nervous  and  intes- 


VARIETIES  31 

tinal  troubles  received  the  proper  medication.    Then 
she  went  back  to  the  special  class. 

Now  the  two  chief  values  of  all  special  classes  are 
found  in  the  large  amount  of  attention  given  to  each 
pupil  in  the  small  classes  and  in  fitting  the  instruc- 
tion to  the  peculiar  needs  of  each  pupil.  Julia  liked 
to  sew,  to  take  physical  exercise,  to  play  games  and 
to  sing.  So  she  received  regular  daily  training  in 
all  these  arts.  Nothing  special  or  peculiar  was  in- 
troduced into  the  methods  of  teaching  her  these 
common  accomplishments.  It  was  the  fact  that  she 
was  learning  the  things  she  could  learn  that  counted. 
The  effect  of  such  exercises  began  soon  to  appear. 
They  showed  first  in  her  constantly  and  rapidly  im- 
proving physical  condition.  Health  came  to  her 
body,  blood  to  her  cheeks,  brightness  to  her  eyes, 
and  energy  to  her  muscles.  Along  with  health  came 
improvement  in  her  disposition.  Her  stubbornness 
just  evaporated  under  the  sunshine  of  daily  well- 
being. 

Finally  her  power  to  perform  mental  work  began 
to  grow.  Concentration,  always  dependent  upon 
physical  power  in  some  form  or  other,  increased 
with  the  increase  of  health  and  strength.  Julia  be- 
gan to  learn,  and  the  joy  of  developing  common  to 
all  children  when  they  grow  came  to  her.  Four 
months  of  strenuous  training  were  required  to  stem 
the  tide  of  retrogression  and  to  return  her  to  the 
regular  third  grade.  That  of  course  was  far  below 
her  normal  grade  and  it  will  take  several  years  of 


32  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

hard  work  yet  to  bring  her  up  anywhere  near  to  the 
standard.  It  seems  a  profound  pity  that  so  many 
years  were  wasted  before  a  clinic  examination  was 
made,  but  we  must  remember  that  it  was  the  clinic 
that  started  her  right  and  assured  her  teachers  of 
ultimate  victory. 

Julia,  unlike  some  of  the  boys  and  girls  just  de- 
scribed, belongs  to  a  class  of  slowly  recoverable 
temporarily  retarded  children.  They  are  by  all  odds 
the  most  difficult  cases  to  diagnose  and  to  train.  In 
their  general  appearance  and  mental  powers  they 
seem  to  belong  not  to  the  temporarily  retarded  but 
to  the  permanently  retarded,  for  whom  little  can  be 
done.  They  often  suffer  from  a  multitude  of  de- 
fects— poor  vision,  bad  hearing,  enlarged  tonsils, 
adenoids,  decayed  teeth  and  malnutrition;  they  tire 
easily,  are  irritable  or  apathetic,  without  ability  to 
pay  attention,  idlers,  slovenly,  falling  into  mischief, 
centers  of  disturbance  and  constant  drains  upon  the 
teacher's  time  and  patience.  All  of  their  physical 
defects  may  be  remedied,  they  may  be  placed  in  the 
best  of  special  classes  and  yet  for  a  long  time  their 
mental  awakening  is  beyond  the  hope  of  all  but  the 
most  faithful  and  experienced.  Gradually  they  take 
hold;  some  detail  of  manual  labor  appeals  to  them 
and  they  do  it  with  a  new  pleasure.  From  that, 
step  by  step,  the  experienced  teacher  leads  them  out 
into  wider  and  more  intricate  pieces  of  manual  work 
until  at  last  the  day  comes  when  the  gulf  between 
the  concrete  task  and  the  abstract  symbol,  between 


VARIETIES  33 

training  and  teaching,  is  bridged  and  the  road  to  the 
higher  learning  Hes  open  once  more.  The  progress 
may  still  be  slow,  but  the  upward  march  is  sure,  and 
the  outcome,  though  possibly  long  delayed,  is  cer- 
tain. No  single  group  of  children  requires  so  much 
patience,  so  much  skill  in  diagnosis  and  training, 
and  so  much  abounding  faith  in  the  infallibility  of 
psychological  analyses  as  does  this  group.  If  to 
their  mental  backwardness  are  added  moral  delin- 
quencies, then  indeed  is  their  lot  a  hard  one.  For 
it  is  so  easy  for  the  uninformed  parent  or  unpre- 
pared teacher  to  explain  the  whole  trouble  by  say- 
ing, "He  is  just  bad;  that's  what  is  the  matter  with 
him,"  but  utterly  forgetting  that  in  this  case  the 
badness  is  not  at  all  a  cause,  but  merely  a  symptom, 
or  a  concomitant,  of  the  backwardness. 

These  children  are  often  confused  with  the  feeble- 
minded, and  hence  in  some  cases  great  cures  of  the 
feeble-minded  are  heralded  by  instructors  who  are 
not  skilful  in  making  diagnoses.  This  is  not  to 
be  wondered  at  since  the  physical  appearances  and 
mental  attributes  of  these  children  very  closely  ap- 
proximate those  of  the  truly  feeble-minded.  The 
resemblances  are  only  superficial,  while  the  differ- 
ences are  profound.  It  is  in  this  realm  that  so  much 
waste  of  energy  and  so  much  confusion  in  theory 
is  to  be  found.  Teachers  will  insist  that  middle- 
grade  imbeciles,  for  example,  can  be  taught  to  read 
and  write,  because  they  have  received  children  diag- 
nosed as  middle-grade  imbeciles  into  their  classes 


34  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

and  have  succeeded  in  teaching  them  to  read  and 
write.  It  is  perfectly  evident  to  those  who  under- 
stand that  if,  by  definition,  a  middle-grade  imbecile 
is  one  who  can  not  be  taught  to  read  and  write,  then 
children  called  middle-grade  imbeciles  and  who  still 
learn  to  read  and  write  are  not  what  they  are  diag- 
nosed to  be.  That  mistakes  of  this  kind  should 
frequently  occur  is  not  at  all  surprising  when  we 
consider  how  few  skilled  mental  diagnosticians  there 
are  and  how  many  mental  diagnoses  are  made  by 
laymen  and  by  others  with  very  little  special  train- 
ing. It  is,  therefore,  highly  necessary  that  the 
teacher  of  special  children  should  keep  herself  clear 
from  confusion  of  this  sort.  She  should  maintain 
her  poise  of  mind  and  retain  her  clear  discrimina- 
tion between  temporarily  retarded  and  the  perma- 
nently retarded  and  neither  waste  her  time  by  spend- 
ing useless  energy  on  the  latter  nor  exhibit  undue 
exhilaration  over  the  reclamation  of  the  former. 
Especially  must  she  be  on  her  guard  against  assert- 
ing that  a  feeble-minded  child,  who  very  naturally 
makes  exceedingly  rapid  progress  after  surgical  and 
medical  treatment,  with  a  little  intensive  training,  is 
not  feeble-minded,  but  only  temporarily  backward. 
Just  recently  in  an  institution  I  came  across  a  girl 
manifestly  feeble-minded,  who  six  or  seven  years 
ago  under  the  care  of  an  expert,  received  the 
proper  medical  and  surgical  treatment,  and  then  was 
placed  with  a  special  teacher.  Under  this  tutelage 
the  girl  progressed  very  rapidly.     She  seemed  to 


VARIETIES  35 

awaken  to  new  life  intellectually  and  emotionally. 
Her  physical  condition,  her  disposition,  her  charac- 
ter and  her  conduct  all  leaped  forward  in  unison. 
She  soon  entered  a  grade  in  a  regular  public  school 
where,  though  she  was  much  retarded  pedagogically, 
she  kept  pace  with  her  class  and  made  good  prog- 
ress. Gradually,  however,  her  first  rapid  strides 
grew  slower  and  shorter  until  finally  she  reached 
her  upper  limit  of  intellectual  growth  and  has  re- 
mained there  stationary  ever  since.  Several  ob- 
servers were  deceived  by  her  first  remarkable  ad- 
vancement and  prematurely  concluded  that  she  was 
entirely  normal. 


CHAPTER  III 

TYPICAL    RETARDATION    DUE    TO    PHYSICAL    DEFECTS 

A  SPECIAL-CLASS  teacher  of  long  experience 
was  one  day  confronted  with  the  worst  case 
she  had  ever  seen.  He  was  a  boy  of  eleven  years 
whose  parents  had  recently  moved  into  the  neigh- 
borhood and  had  entered  their  son  in  the  regular 
grade,  where  the  teacher  had  tried  her  best  with 
him,  and  had  finally  appealed  to  the  principal  to  re- 
lieve her  of  this  hopeless  case  by  placing  him  in  the 
special  class  for  backward  children.  So  the  princi- 
pal brought  him  to  the  special  teacher  and  gave  her 
as  much  as  he  knew  of  the  boy's  family,  personal 
and  pedagogical  history. 

The  parents  were  ordinary  hard-working  people 
of  good  stock ;  his  brothers  and  sisters  were  all  nor- 
mal and  several  were  in  school  doing  well.  The 
boy  himself  had  never  suffered  with  any  specially 
severe  disease  like  diphtheria,  nor  any  that  left  bad 
mental  consequences  behind,  nor  did  he  suffer  from 
epileptic  fits,  St.  Vitus'  dance,  nor  nervousness, 
though  he  had  a  few  more  than  his  share  of 
children's  ordinary  diseases  like  measles,  mumps, 
chicken-pox  and  the  like,  and  continually  suffered 

36 


PHYSICAL   DEFECTS  37 

from  colds,  sore  throat,  toothache  and  occasionally 
earache. 

His  school-life  presented  nothing  very  marked  in 
particular,  though  on  the  whole  it  was  bad.  He 
started  to  school  at  six ;  at  first  made  good  progress, 
but  contracted  the  measles  and  was  out  of  school 
for  six  weeks,  and  after  that  seemed  to  lose  interest 
and  to  fall  behind  until  he  was  only  in  the  third 
grade,  and  was  that  far  along  more  by  grace  than 
by  merit.  He  seemed  to  be  generally  and  hopelessly 
retarded.  He  was  poor  in  everything.  Apparently 
he  did  not  try;  he  was  dull,  stupid,  inattentive,  for- 
getful, irritable,  stubborn,  irregular  in  his  attend- 
ance, annoying  when  he  was  in  school,  and  latterly 
suspected  of  truancy  when  he  was  out.  In  it  all,  he 
did  not  seem  to  be  particularly  mentally  defective; 
some  of  his  teachers  asserted  he  was  feeble-minded, 
while  others  said  he  could  learn  if  he  would.  Such 
was  his  history  when  he  came  to  the  special  teacher. 

Diagnosis  of  the  Case. — As  I  said,  this  teacher 
had  both  training  for  and  experience  in  her  work. 
Though  this  boy  seemed  a  hopeless  case,  she  pro- 
ceeded in  her  usual  systematic  and  efficient  man- 
ner. She  wasted  no  time  calling  him  names  nor 
labeling  him.  She  did  not  stop  to  ask  if  he  was 
^'really  retarded."  That  he  was  pedagogically  re- 
tarded was  a  patent  fact.  Her  business  was  ulti- 
mately to  restore  him  to  the  grades  if  that  was  pos- 
sible. Her  immediate  task  was  to  decide  if  that  was 
possible.    To  decide  that  she  must  find  the  causes  of 


38  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

this  boy's  backwardness.  Her  experience  assured 
her  the  causes  were  either  in  the  boy  himself  or  in 
his  environment. 

Environmental  Causes. — In  his  environment 
there  was  nothing  unusually  bad.  His  home  was 
not  rich,  but  it  was  a  good  one.  His  brothers  and 
sisters  were  normal.  His  schooling  had  been  the 
usual  one,  and  his  brothers  and  sisters  had  suc- 
ceeded with  the  same  schools,  lessons  and  teachers 
he  himself  had  had.  The  neighborhood  in  which  he 
lived  and  played  was  typical,  neither  very  good  nor 
very  bad.  His  companions  were  not  noted  for  their 
delinquencies,  though  he  had  in  the  last  year  fallen 
in  with  a  crowd  of  boys  who  formed  the  worst  ele- 
ment of  the  school  and  who  numbered  among 
them  some  of  the  truants  and  incorrigibles.  But, 
on  the  whole,  it  seemed  clear  that  the  cause  of  this 
boy's  decline  in  school  work  was  not  due  to  environ- 
ment, but  to  something  in  him.  Was  that  something 
a  mental  defect,  as  a  number  of  his  teachers  said, 
or  a  physical  defect? 

The  Physical  Examination. — For  answer  the 
teacher  turned  to  the  boy  himself.  He  had  come 
slouching  in  behind  the  principal  and  had  stood  fin- 
gering his  cap  and  casting  furtive  glances  around 
the  room  and  over  the  other  fifteen  children  of  vari- 
ous ages  in  the  ungraded  class,  while  the  principal 
gave  the  teacher  a  rapid  account  of  her  new  charge's 
life  and  present  condition.  When  the  principal  left, 
in  answer  to  the  teacher's  word,  Joe — ^we  will  call 


PHYSICAL   DEFECTS  39 

him,  though  that  is  not  his  name — shuffled  up  to 
the  desk  and  stood  before  her.  No  wonder  others 
thought  him  hopeless.  Almost  every  Hne  of  his  per- 
sonal appearance  and  posture  spoke  loudly  of  physi- 
cal and  mental  inefficiency.  To  the  acute  eyes  of 
the  teacher  his  clothing  manifested  the  struggle  go- 
ing on  between  a  mother,  neat  and  energetic,  still 
hoping  to  keep  up  a  high  standard  of  appearance, 
and  the  slow  but  sure  inroads  of  mental  retrogres- 
sion in  the  boy.  His  clothes  were  good,  somewhat 
worn,  carelessly  put  on  and  slovenly  carried  on 
a  slouching  frame.  Great  perpendicular  wrinkles 
creased  his  coat  at  the  shoulders;  his  soft  shirt  col- 
lar, though  clean  and  white,  was  pulled  out  of  shape, 
with  one  wing  over  and  the  other  under  his  coat 
lapel;  his  four-in-hand  necktie  had  slipped  down 
from  his  collar  and  the  ends  hung  outside  his  vest ; 
his  stockings  were  not  pulled  up  smoothly ;  his  shoe- 
strings were  only  partly  laced.  The  struggle  be- 
tween a  mother's  will  and  a  backward  boy's  listless 
indifference  was  patent  everywhere  in  his  clothes. 

The  whole  effect  was  accentuated  and  heightened 
by  his  posture.  He  stood  with  his  arms  hanging  at 
his  sides,  stoop-shouldered,  flat-chested,  his  shoul- 
der-blades outstanding,  betraying  in  every  attitude 
he  took  the  lassitude  and  weakness  due  to  lack  of 
oxygen,  to  faults  of  digestion  and  assimilation,  and 
to  the  poisons  of  fatigue.  The  teacher's  trained  eye 
went  over  him  from  head  to  foot,  noting  in  detail 
every  characteristic,   eliminating  the   unimportant 


40  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

and  non-essential,  marking  down  in  her  retentive 
memory  the  vital  essentials,  and  letting  these  tell 
their  story  to  her  unbiased  and  disciplined  judg- 
ment. 

Her  survey  began  with  his  hair,  naturally  thick 
and  glossy,  but  now  dead  and  unruly,  showing  evi- 
dences of  having  been  wetted  and  combed  that  morn- 
ing, but  later  mussed  by  a  careless  adjustment  of 
the  cap,  which  the  embarrassed  boy  now  swung 
backward  and  forward  in  nervous  little  semicircles. 
The  shape  of  his  head,  the  size  and  shape  of  his  ears, 
eyes,  nose,  mouth  and  jaws  were  all  naturally  nor- 
mal, as  the  teacher  could  discern  by  her  analysis, 
though  some  features  were  marred  by  defects.  The 
sallow  complexion,  the  drooping  eyelids,  the  vacu- 
ous expression  of  face,  and  the  listlessness  of  every 
movement  betokened  either  imbecility  or  the  total 
result  of  many  advanced  physical  defects. 

Signs  of  Adenoids. — To  decide  whether  Joe 
was  permanently  or  only  temporarily  retarded,  Miss 
F.,  the  teacher,  knew  that  his  physical  defects  must 
first  be  diagnosed  and  removed  and  a  chance  be 
given  for  his  native  powers  to  appear  and  to  be  de- 
veloped by  proper  training  in  a  special  class.  To 
begin  the  analysis  of  Joe's  real  condition  by  her  own 
observation.  Miss  F.  made  a  few  gentle  and  kindly 
inquiries,  placed  him  in  a  seat  well  up  in  front,  and 
gave  him  some  simple  busy-work  which  would  take 
his  mind  off  of  himself  and  yet  not  make  so  great  a 
demand  upon  his  attention  that  his  activity  would 


PHYSICAL   DEFECTS  41 

obscure  his  real  self-expression.  In  the  meantime 
Miss  F.  continued  her  careful  and  systematic  exam- 
ination, while  Joe,  blissfully  ignorant  of  it,  pro- 
ceeded to  adjust  himself  to  his  new  surroundings. 
Very  quickly  the  teacher  noted  the  most  potent 
adenoid  signs.  Experience  taught  her  what  trains 
of  evil  effects  to  expect  in  addition  to  these  patent 
defects. 

Because  adenoids  are  so  common,  because  they 
are  so  intimately  connected  with  retardation,  be- 
cause their  mental  effects  so  closely  resemble  feeble- 
mindedness, and  because  their  accompanying  physi- 
cal defects  are  so  numerous,  we  will  describe  briefly 
what  Miss  F.  saw  in  them.  So  true  is  the  last  state- 
ment that  we  can  almost  say  that  a  study  of  ade- 
noids and  their  symptoms  will  cover  nearly  all 
the  non-contagious,  most  common  physical  defects  a 
child-trainer  will  ordinarily  be  called  on  to  discover. 

Adenoids  are  really  tonsils  always  normally  pres- 
ent and  giving  trouble  only  when  they  swell  by  over- 
growth and  hang  down  from  the  rear  wall  of  the 
passage  between  the  throat  and  the  nose,  forming 
lobes  of  pulpy,  red,  spongy  masses  like  several  rai- 
sins on  a  stem,  the  whole  about  as  large  as  the  end 
of  an  adult's  finger.  In  that  position  they  obstruct 
breathing,  compelling  the  sufferer  to  bring  in  his 
supply  of  oxygen  directly  through  the  mouth  instead 
of  by  the  radiator-like,  dust-gathering  passages  of 
the  nostrils,  where  the  air  is  warmed  and  cleansed. 
[The  first  external  signs  of  adenoids  to  be  looked  for 


J 

42  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

by  the  teacher,  though  of  course  others  may  precede 
this  one,  is  the  thickening  of  the  bridge  of  the  nose 
without  depression.  The  bony  bridge  simply  widens 
by  swelling  at  each  side  and  gradually  joins  the 
cheek  like  a  hill  melting  into  a  plain.  The  nostrils, 
because  of  their  disuse  in  breathing,  do  not  develop, 
remain  narrow  and  small,  lose  their  fine  chiselings, 
and  take  on  an  infantile,  putty-like,  unfinished  ap- 
pearance. If  the  whole  nose  is  inspected  sharply,  it 
appears  as  if  the  bridge  and  the  nostrils  did  not 
match,  as  if  the  bridge  was  several  years  older  than 
the  nostrils. 

Very  quickly  following  this  thickening  of  the 
nose  bridge  comes  the  mouth  breathing.  It  may  be 
harder  to  detect  than  one  thinks.  Children  are 
scolded  so  frequently  for  holding  their  mouths  open 
that  some  of  them  acquire  the  habit  of  snapping 
their  lips  shut  whenever  they  look  at  any  one  in 
authority  or  a  grown  person  looks  their  way.  As  a 
result  the  mouth  appears  to  be  closed  most  of  the 
time  and  the  weary-worn,  labor-saving  device,  "It 
is  just  a  habit !"  stops  further  parental  endeavor  and 
throws  the  burden  of  the  matter  on  the  already 
overburdened  frame  of  the  patient  sufferer,  a  pa- 
tient and  a  sufferer  in  more  senses  than  one.  The 
sympathetic  observer  will  secretly  watch  the  child 
when  he — she,  I  was  just  going  to  say,  because  girls 
more  than  boys  suffer  from  all  forms  of  suppres- 
sion— when  he  is  off  guard.  The  best  time  is  dur- 
ing the  child's  sleep.  Parents,  however,  are  so  loath 


PHYSICAL   DEFECTS  43 

to  admit  that  anything  is  wrong  with  their  own 
children  and  usually  feel  so  much  of  a  repugnance, 
not  to  say  fear,  of  an  operation  that  unfortunately 
their  witness  fails  where  it  is  needed  most.  How- 
ever, the  matter  can  not  be  long  in  doubt  with  any- 
thing like  observation,  and  at  any  time  the  diagnosis 
of  a  modern  throat  specialist  will  settle  the  matter. 
He  will  use  a  small  mirror  and  a  light  to  look  up 
into  the  arch  of  the  post-nasal  cavity  or  explore  it 
with  his  finger.  The  first  method  the  lay  person  is 
almost  always  unable  to  use,  and  the  second,  for 
reasons  many  and  obvious,  he  is  wholesomely  ad- 
vised not  to  try. 

The  open  mouth  of  the  adenoid  case  is  not  due  at 
first  to  a  dropping  of  the  lower  jaw,  but  a  shorten- 
ing of  the  upper  lip.  The  fashion  plates  of  school 
misses,  or  the  stereotyped  faces  of  feminine  beau- 
ties found  everywhere  to  illustrate  the  traditional 
fragile  and  clinging  type  of  woman,  offer  the  best 
opportunties  to  study  the  ideal  adenoid  upper  lip. 
For  some  reason,  possibly  because  of  the  ^'weaker 
sex"  theory,  the  world  has  forced  to  some  extent 
the  adenoid  face  and  almost  wholly  the  adenoid  up- 
per lip  upon  the  womanly  woman,  and  the  firm 
normal  upper  lip  upon  her  anti-type,  the  "strong" 
woman.  All  such  perversions  of  nature  showered 
upon  us  in  daily  arts  of  advertisements  and  illus- 
trations tend  to  confuse  our  minds  and  obscure  the 
defects  from  which  children  suffer.  Though  the 
upper  lip  is  first  affected,  it  is  not  long  before  the 


44  BACKWARD.   CHILDREN 

lower  lip  also  suffers.  It  thickens,  tends  to  roll  out 
and  down,  falling  with  the  lower  jaw.  The  lip 
thus  exposed  to  the  air,  and  deteriorating  with  the 
rest  of  the  body,  becomes  chapped  and  cracks,  often 
being  covered  with  seams  which  open  and  bleed 
easily.  Usually  it  takes  a  long  time  after  the  ade- 
noids are  removed  for  the  lips  to  recover  their  nor- 
mal shape  and  beauty. 

Adenoids,  enlarged  tonsils  and  crooked  teeth  fol- 
low one  another  almost  with  the  fatality  of  cause 
and  effect.  The  connection  is  certain  if  the  ade- 
noids develop  at  or  before  the  time  of  second  teeth- 
ing, at  about  seven  years  of  age.  This  is  due  to  the 
peculiar  effect  adenoids  have  upon  the  shape  of  the 
jaws.  The  upper  jaw  assumes  a  V-shaped  appear- 
ance, losing  its  curve  and  tending  to  a  point  in  front. 
Some  writers  believe  it  is  a  reversion  to  the  animal 
jaw  it  so  closely  resembles,  others,  that  it  is  chiefly 
due  to  the  pressure  of  enlarged  tonsils.  Naturally 
such  a  malformation  crowds  the  teeth  together  and 
out  of  line.  The  upper  front  incisors  jamb  together 
and  overlap ;  then  the  canines,  or  eye  teeth,  come  in 
either  inside  or  outside  of  their  proper  places  and 
form  "tushes";  the  other  teeth  adjust  themselves 
to  their  crowded  quarters  as  best  they  can,  and  often 
the  jawbones  are  bent  up  or  down  so  that  either  the 
front  teeth  or  the  back  will  not  come  together  at  all. 

Under  such  conditions  chewing  is  agony  at  worst 
and  ill-paying  labor  at  best.  Bolting  the  food  gives 
immediate  relief  and  future  digestive  retribution, 


PHYSICAL   DEFECTS  45 

neither,  of  which,  with  all  the  parental  admonitions 
and  threats  thrown  in,  will  be  efficacious  until  the 
child's  teeth  are  restored  by  a  dentist  to  their  proper 
grinding  positions.  Unless  some  positive  treatment 
for  straightening  the  teeth  is  given,  the  crooked 
teeth  and  consequent  deformed  and  ugly  mouth  will 
accompany  the  sufferer  through  life.  Crooked  teeth 
are  not  misfortunes  of  fate,  but  curable  defects,  and 
ninety-five  per  cent,  of  them  are  due  to  adenoids. 

Still  the  category  of  ills  justly  ascribed  to  ad- 
enoids is  not  complete.  They  rob  the  body  of  its 
most  necessary  nutrition,  food  and  oxygen.  How 
the  food  is  lost  by  insufficient  chewing  due  to  bad 
teeth  has  been  described  above.  Robbing  of  oxygen 
seems  at  first  sight  a  false  charge.  For  is  it  not 
easier  to  breathe  through  the  mouth  than  through 
the  nose?  Why  then  is  not  more  instead  of  less  air 
taken  in  that  way?  First,  because  the  organism 
seeks  to  protect  itself  against  the  direct  blast  of  in- 
coming cold  and  dusty  air  striking  directly  upon  the 
irritated  membrane  of  the  adenoid  throat.  Sec- 
ondly, because  of  the  ease  of  intake  and  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  amount  of  air,  the  neck  muscles  and  the 
inter-rib  muscles  are  not  exercised ;  the  ribs  sag,  the 
chest  flattens,  the  shoulders  droop  forward,  and  the 
shoulder-blades  stand  out  with  remarkable  promi- 
nence. This  whole  condition  is  furthered  and  height- 
ened by  the  lassitude  and  weakness  of  the  body  due 
to  lack  of  oxygen,  to  faults  of  digestion  and  assimi- 
lation, and  to  fatigue.    The  sallow  complexion,  the 


46  BACKWARD   CHILDREN     . 

paleness  about  the  lips,  the  dark  furrows  under  the 
eyes,  and  the  drooping  eyelids,  with  a  weary  expres- 
sion of  face  and  listlessness  in  every  movement,  ex- 
cept when  quick  irritation  overcomes  the  constant 
disinclination  to  move,  complete  the  picture  of  a 
>vell  advanced  adenoid  case. 

Mental  Signs  of  Adenoids, — The  mental  signs 
of  adenoids  are  almost  as  well  marked  as  the  physi- 
cal ones  just  described.  Irritability  is  the  one  first 
noticed.  It  is  almost  impossible  for  the  sufferer  to 
get  up  in  the  morning,  dress,  eat  breakfast  and  get 
started  to  school  without  a  quarrel  and  a  cry  over 
something.  Ignorant  parents  attribute  such  out- 
breaks to  mere  temper  and  frequently  assist  in  the 
destruction  of  the  child's  disposition  and  nervous 
system  by  means  of  the  ever-ready  rod.  There  is 
no  mystical  connection  between  adenoids  and  irrita- 
bility. Let  any  one  push  a  wad  of  cotton  about  the 
size  of  the  little  finger  end  back  through  his  nose  so 
it  will  lodge  in  the  cavity  and  obstruct  his  breath- 
ing. Of  course,  it  will  compel  him  to  breathe 
through  his  mouth.  His  mouth  and  throat  will  be- 
come parched,  his  sleep  will  be  uneasy  and  broken ; 
all  the  neighboring  membranes  will  become  irritated, 
and  in  the  morning,  just  as  worn-out  nature  com- 
poses itself  for  some  real  sleep,  he  is  called  to  an 
arbitrary  task  and  expected  to  arise  immediately, 
obediently,  amiably  and  gladly,  greeting  all  the 
household  with  a  happy  ''Good  morning!"  Such 
expectations  are  against  nature.    The  same  explana- 


PHYSICAL   DEFECTS  47 

tion  applies  to  wandering  and  flighty  attention,  the 
second  marked  symptom  of  adenoids.  The  constant 
irritation  grown  so  habitual  to  the  child  as  to  be 
almost  unnoticed  by  him  under  ordinary  circum- 
stances, comes  up  into  clear  consciousness  as  soon 
as  he  tries  to  apply  his  mind  to  monotonous  books. 
Everybody  has  noticed  the  same  phenomenon  with 
any  slight  irritant.  Excitement  drowns  out  a  pain. 
But  who  can  study  with  a  pair  of  tight  new  shoes 
burning  his  feet?  If  adenoids  are  allowed  to  re- 
main, other  more  general  mental  effects  follow  the 
gradual  decline  of  physical  strength:  a  general 
mental  lassitude,  inability  to  apply  the  mind,  dull- 
ness and  such  low  mental  power  that  adenoid  cases 
of  advanced  standing  are  often  mistaken  for  imbe- 
cility. It  is  in  this  very  realm  that  the  most  strik- 
ing cases  o'f  recovery  from  retardation  are  recorded. 
Tests  By  Reading. — Miss  F.  finally  had  Joe 
read  for  her.  She  gave  him  a  book  as  easy  as  the 
first  reader  and  let  him  handle  it  in  his  own  way. 
To  free  him  from  embarrassment  as  much  as  possi- 
ble she  let  him  sit  in  his  seat.  He  seized  the  book 
with  both  hands,  tightened  up  all  the  muscles  of  his 
body,  began  in  a  high-pitched,  falsetto  key,  with  a 
peculiar  deadened  tone  in  it  which  his  teacher  recog- 
nized at  once  as  the  "adenoid  voice."  When  he 
came  to  a  word  that  he  did  not  quite  know,  Joe 
screwed  up  his  face,  squinted  his  right  eye  and 
swung  his  head  around  so  that  his  left  eye  did  all 
the  seeing.    His  pronunciation  exhibited  minor  yet 


48  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

significant  peculiarities.  He  constantly  omitted  the 
"g"  in  words  ending  in  **ing";  he  slurred  many 
other  sounds  and  often  omitted  entirely  a  final  syl- 
lable with  perfect  equanimity  and  entire  irresponsi- 
bility. Not  once  did  the  new  teacher  stop  him,  nor 
advise  him  nor  correct  him. 

Joe  was  elated ;  so  was  the  teacher.  She  was  sure 
now  that  he  had  adenoids,  almost  certain  that  his 
tonsils  w^ere  enlarged,  suspected  that  he  was  par- 
tially deaf,  and  felt  adequately  convinced  that  he 
was  near-sighted  and  that  his  right  eye  was  far  more 
affected  than  his  left.  The  position  of  his  book, 
the  twisting  of  his  head,  shutting  one  eye  in  difficult 
places,  the  wrinkles  above  his  eyes  across  his  fore- 
head, all  these  told  her  of  eye  strain  and  argued  for 
many  other  nervous  stresses  all  over  his  body  that 
may  have  led  to  many,  many  of  his  unruly  fits  and 
bad  actions.  His  slurring  of  syllables  without  any 
consciousness  of  it,  together  with  the  adenoids,  ar- 
gued for  partial  deafness,  and  these  were  seconded 
by  his  peculiarly  loud  voice.  None  of  these  signs 
alone  would  have  meant  much,  but  altogether  their 
cumulative  evidence  was  almost  irresistible.  His 
teacher  was  not  surprised  a  moment  later,  when, 
without  even  touching  the  boy,  she  faced  him  to  a 
window,  asked  him  to  open  his  mouth  wide  and 
pronounce  "a"  short,  as  in  "rat,"  while  she  looked 
into  his  open  mouth  and  saw  the  red  masses  on  each 
side  of  his  throat.  Now  she  was  certain  of  the  en- 
larged tonsils,  and  also  as  sure  of  them  as  if  she 


PHYSICAL   DEFECTS  49 

could  see  the  enlarged  adenoids  hanging  in  the  post- 
nasal passage  in  such  a  way  as  to  obstruct  most  ef- 
fectually any  breathing  through  the  nasal  passage 
provided  by  nature  to  warm  and  strain  the  incoming 
air.  A  few  simple  additional  tests  would  make  her 
also  morally  certain  of  the  eye  and  ear  defects  and 
give  her  the  assurance  that  she  could  refer  this  poor 
boy  to  the  medical  inspector  without  any  fear  that 
her  tentative  diagnosis  would  prove  an  exaggerated 
and  unsupported  suspicion. 

To  give  the  eye  tests  she  simply  held  up  letters 
printed  in  different  sized  types  at  certain  distances 
from  the  boy's  eyes,  distances  that  she  had  marked 
off  on  the  floor  by  making  tests  upon  normal  chil- 
dren. She  tried  first  one  eye  and  then  the  other. 
While  her  tests  were  not  at  all  final  or  official  they 
were  accurate  enough  to  convince  her  that  Joe 
needed  an  oculist.  The  ear  tests  were  equally  sim- 
ple. She  stood  Joe  up  against  the  wall  with  his 
right  ear  to  the  wall,  his  finger  in  it  and  his  eyes 
shut,  and  then  had  him  repeat  words  to  her  that 
she  whispered  to  him  while  she  stood  at  specified 
distances  from  him.  These  distances  she  knew  by 
former  tests.  Just  to  confirm  her  judgment  and  to 
intefest  this  backward  boy — who  was  receiving,  by 
the  way,  a  great  deal  of  real  education  from  the 
tests — she  had  him  stand  before  her  with  his  back 
to  her,  close  his  eyes,  and  then  listen  for  a  watch 
which  she  held  concealed  in  one  hand,  while  she 
brought  both  her  closed  hands  from  a  distance  on 


so  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

each  side  of  his  head  toward  his  ears.  As  soon  as 
he  was  sure  he  heard  the  watch  he  raised  the  hand 
on  the  side  that  he  heard  it.  As  she  suspected,  he 
was  almost  entirely  deaf  in  one  ear  and  his  hearing 
was  much  diminished  in  the  other.  It  was  a  revela- 
tion to  Joe  and  a  matter  of  keen  interest  to  the  other 
children,  though,  of  course,  none  of  them  knew  all 
the  results  or  their  entire  significance.  None  of  them 
guessed,  for  instance,  what  the  teacher  knew  was 
true,  that  much  of  Joe's  stubbornness,  stupidity,  tru- 
ancy and  pseudo-feeble-mindedness  was  already  ex- 
plained. Though  he  did  look  hopeless,  though  ad- 
enoids choked  his  breathing  passages,  and  tonsils 
nearly  filled  his  throat,  though  both  had  been  instru- 
mental in  bringing  on  the  earache  and  partial  deaf- 
ness, and  had  further  warped  his  jaws  out  of  shape; 
though  his  teeth  were  decaying  and  tartarous; 
though  he  was  bereft  of  his  vitality  by  this  under- 
nutrition and  by  lack  of  oxygen  because  of  aden- 
oids; though  his  eyes  were  poor,  and  altogether  he 
seemed  a  sorry  object,  still  there  was  hope.  Great 
indeed  was  the  faith  that  could  see  a  future  for  this 
boy,  his  mouth  open,  his  teeth  crooked  and  decay- 
ing, his  jaws  malformed,  his  nose  thickened  at  the 
bridge  and  undeveloped  at  the  nostrils,  his  eyes 
heavy,  his  hearing  impaired,  colds  and  sore  throats 
his  weekly  lot,  his  body  starving  for  air  and  food 
and  proper  rest  in  sleep,  his  attention  flighty,  his 
mind  sluggish,  his  temper  quick  and  easily  irritated, 
his  disposition  stubborn  and  rebellious,  a  child  unfit 


PHYSICAL   DEFECTS  51 

in  every  respect  for  schooling  or  for  work,  for  play 
or  companionship,  a  ready  victim  to  many  diseases 
and  susceptible  to  bronchitis,  pneumonia,  and  tuber- 
culosis, and  yet  all  his  troubles  physical  and  mental, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  like  his  visual  defects, 
could  be  traced  directly  or  indirectly  to  adenoids. 
He,  indeed,  was  an  extreme  case,  but  how  many 
other  backward  children  are  there  that  suffer  little 
and  much  from  a  few  or  many  of  the  same  physical 
defects. 

Joe's  Treatment. — Miss  F.  knew  that  it  was 
useless  to  waste  time  giving  Joe  mental  tests  or  try- 
ing to  proceed  with  his  education  while  all  the  ave- 
nues to  his  mind  were  blockaded  effectually  against 
any  admission  of  knowledge.  She  sent  him  to  the 
medical  inspector  of  the  school,  who  confirmed  all 
her  tentative  diagnoses,  and  referred  the  boy  to  spe- 
cialists and  clinics  for  treatment.  Of  course  Joe's 
parents  were  amazed  at  the  condition  of  their  boy. 
They  were  plain  people  who  had  not  found  aden- 
oids and  enlarged  tonsils  in  their  spellers  and  read- 
ers when  they  went  to  school  and  were  inclined, 
like  most  parents  who  are  moved  through  fear  and 
prejudice,  to  charge  all  advice  regarding  surgical 
operations  to  attempts  at  experimentation  upon  their 
most  precious  son.  But  tact  and  coaxing  by  the 
medical  inspector,  the  special  teacher  and  the  school 
nurse,  finally  won  the  day,  and  Joe's  mother  went 
with  him  to  the  hospital  for  the  throat  operation. 
It  was  a  trying  time  for  the  poor  woman  and  a  posi- 


52  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

tive  epoch  in  Joe's  life.  He  went  bravely  enough, 
with  a  mixture  of  weariness  and  fear  and  stoicism 
that  did  not  sit  badly  upon  him.  When  at  last  he 
was  undressed  and  stretched  upon  the  wheeled 
couch  and  felt  the  cone  for  the  ether  slipped  over 
his  mouth  and  nose,  he  almost  rebelled,  but  made  a 
great  effort — and  knew  nothing  more  for  some  min- 
utes. The  doctor  opened  his  mouth,  slipped  a 
curved  knife  back  behind  the'  soft-palate  and  with 
one  sweep  removed  the  adenoids  forever.  The  ton- 
sils followed  next,  both  with  a  great  show  of  blood, 
and  Joe  came  out  of  the  operating  room  still  asleep. 
He  revived  in  a  few  more  minutes,  and  felt  first  of 
all  the  new  freedom  of  a  clear  breathing  passage 
and  an  unclogged  throat.  For  a  week  or  more  his 
throat  was  sore,  of  course,  but  that  he  endured  with 
great  fortitude  because  of  new-found  pride  in  being 
looked  up  to  by  other  boys  who  had  never  been  for- 
tunate enough  to  have  adenoids  and  tonsils  and  to 
go  into  a  real  hospital  for  terrible  operations! 
Then  there  was  the  tenderness  of  his  mother  and  his 
brothers  and  sisters  and  the  new  grave  solicitude 
of  his  father,  and  above  all  the  real  addition  to  his 
moral  strength  which  had  come  from  nobly  going 
through  the  ordeal  and  making  that  final,  never-to- 
be-forgotten  decision  to  stand  it  all  when  the  ether- 
izing began. 

The  eye  examinations  were  not  at  all  bad.  The 
"drops"  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  see  things 
near  by,  but  they  did  not  hurt.    His  new  glasses 


PHYSICAL   DEFECTS  53 

were  strange  at  first  and  he  had  one  or  two  ac- 
cidents with  them  in  spite  of  the  admonitions  of 
his  mother  and  the  family  worry  over  the  cost  of 
repairs.  The  ear  trouble  and  the  catarrh  of  the 
nose  and  throat  were  the  most  stubborn  and  de- 
manded the  longest  and  most  patient  treatments. 
But  Joe  and  his  mother,  inspired  by  the  confidence 
of  Miss  F.,  kept  up  the  work  and  became  familiar 
with  clinics  and  specialists  and  inured  to  waiting  in 
anterooms  where  the  afflicted  of  the  world  gather 
daily.  The  dentists  were  Joe's  worst  enemies.  At 
their  hands  he  suffered  many  and  sundry  tortures. 
Somehow  there  was  not  the  same  glory  in  submit- 
ting to  the  irritation  of  getting  a  tooth  filled  as  there 
was  to  going  out  into  the  dark  unknown  by  ether, 
and  Joe's  protestations  were  inversely  proportion- 
ate to  the  decrease  in  glory.  But  at  last  it  was  over ; 
the  hopeless  teeth  were  drawn,  the  others  were 
filled,  and  a  band,  with  little  screws  at  the  back,  was 
clamped  tightly  upon  his  upper  teeth  to  bring  them 
slowly  and  as  painlessly  as  possible  back  to  their 
normal  shape. 

It  was  March  when  Joe  came  to  the  special  class, 
and  it  was  the  latter  part  of  May  before  his  clinic 
treatments  were  finished  and  he  was  released  from 
almost  daily  physical  pain  and  permitted  to  continue 
his  treatments  for  ear  and  catarrh  at  home,  with 
occasional  visits  to  the  doctors.  In  the  meantime 
he  had  kept  up  a  broken  attendance  at  school,  being 
excused  when  necessary  for  his  treatments.     His 


54  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

lessons  were  irregular  and  his  education  but  per- 
functory during  that  time.  Yet  it  was  wonderful 
to  see  how  he  was  already  learning.  It  seemed  as 
if  many  items  of  knowledge  that  had  been  so  la- 
boriously instilled  into  his  mind  and  seemingly  for- 
ever submerged  there  came  back  again.  He  was 
changed  physically  also.  There  was  a  new  bright- 
ness in  his  eye,  a  better  color  to  his  cheek,  a  firmer 
position  and  finer  carriage  to  his  body,  a  better  appe- 
tite and  more  visible  results  from  his  food.  His 
mouth  was  still  open  and  he  was  far  from  the  boy 
he  should  have  been,  for  ills  that  gather  through 
years  can  not  be  dispelled  in  weeks.  His  new-found 
strength  of  muscle  and  purpose  was  exercised 
chiefly  in  the  manual  and  physical  work  of  the  spe- 
cial class,  where  he  was  not  only  acquiring  skill,  but 
was  also  developing  interest  in  both  manual  and 
mental  tasks  by  discovering  hitherto  unknown  con- 
nections between  the  things  he  learned  in  books  and 
the  things  he  liked  to  do  with  his  hands.  Almost 
before  Joe  knew  it  June  had  come  and  with  it  vaca- 
tion, the  great  period  of  relief  to  him  before,  but 
this  year  another  momentous  occasion  in  this  year 
of  great  experiences. 

Joe's  Constitutional  Treatments. — Through 
the  never-failing  kindness  of  Miss  F.,  Joe's  mother 
was  recommended  to  a  society  and  Joe  was  sent  to 
the  country  for  the  summer  in  care  of  a  fresh  air 
organization.  How  he  spent  that  summer  it  would 
take  volumes  to  tell  if  everything  he  did  and  learned 


PHYSICAL  DEFECTS  55 

were  put  down.  It  was  the  first  time  in  his  life  he 
had  ever  been  so  long  in  the  country.  The  farm 
where  he  stayed  was  a  real  farm,  with  a  barn,  stable, 
horses,  cows,  barnyard,  fowls  of  all  kinds,  and  two 
puppies  just  at  the  playful  age,  with  a  pond  near  by 
for  the  boys,  who  like  himself  were  there  for  the 
summer,  to  swim  in;  with  plenty  of  good  nourishing 
country  food  to  eat,  without  the  constant  temptation 
to  devour  candies  and  ice-cream  and  to  drink  soda- 
water.  Indeed,  the  old  burning  in  Joe's  throat  that, 
combined  with  his  under-nourished  body,  brought 
on  that  awful  and  continual  craving  for  freezing 
mixtures,  or  cigarette  narcotics,  was  gone,  and  in 
its  place  came  a  regular,  robust  appetite  that  made 
a  slice  of  bread,  golden-crowned  with  fresh  country 
butter,  look  like  the  most  delicious  treat  that  ever 
made  a  boy's  mouth  water  in  expectation.  Back  of 
all  this  happy  vacation  life  was  a  system,  but  of 
course  Joe  did  not  know  it.  He  did  not  dream  that 
his  treatment  was  constitutional  and  that  the  five 
necessities  of  his  daily  life — food,  air,  sleep,  water 
and  play — were  all  carefully  regulated,  albeit  with 
such  masterly  care  that  the  regulative  devices  were 
all  out  of  sight. 

In  the  fall  when  Joe  came  back  to  school  he  was 
wonderfully  changed.  His  schoolmates  hardly 
knew  him,  and  even  Miss  P.,  who  had  hoped  mar- 
vels for  him,  was  surprised.  He  was  a  healthy, 
round-cheeked,  brown-skinned  young  savage,  as 
happy  and  enthusiastic  as  a  boy  could  be  who  was 


56  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

tasting  that  most  exhilarating  of  all  experiences, 
the  rapid  return  of  a  naturally  good  constitution  to 
health  and  strength  after  a  long  down-hill  journey. 
He  was  not  yet  perfect.  The  marks  of  his  adenoids 
were  still  upon  him.  His  teeth,  slowly  returning  to 
normal  position,  were  white  and  clean.  Toothache 
and  earache  both  were  things  of  the  past.  He  had 
not  known  a  cold  since  spring  airs  came.  His  shoul- 
ders were  somewhat  stooped,  but  his  lips  were 
closed,  and  it  was  a  positive  delight  to  his  teacher 
to  look  at  the  strong  mouth,  with  its  curve  return- 
ing, taking  the  place  of  that  former  unsightly  gap 
in  his  face.  His  nose,  too,  was  reshaping  itself  un- 
der the  exercise  of  breathing.  He  still  wore  his 
glasses,  and  behind  them  his  eyes  glowed  with  new 
interests  and  new  meaning.  His  body  showed  the 
greatest  improvement.  He  had  gained  in  weight 
and  in  muscular  vigor;  his  nervousness  had  almost 
disappeared  and  in  its  place  had  come  a  poise  that 
spoke  of  self-control  and  energy  ready  and  anxious 
to  take  up  and  complete  the  tasks  of  a  boy's  life. 
With  it  all  his  temper  had  changed.  He  was  not 
sullen,  but  willing;  not  stubborn,  but  docile;  not  stu- 
pid, but  eager  to  learn. 

The  remnants  of  his  defects,  especially  his  de- 
creasing deafness  and  his  eye  defects,  kept  him  for 
a  little  time  in  the  special  class.  There  he  rounded 
out  his  deficiencies  rapidly,  learned  quickly  to  spell 
and  to  read  and  to  do  arithmetic  sufficiently  to  re- 
turn to  his  grade,  entering  the  fourth  grade  at  the 


PHYSICAL   DEFECTS  57 

end  of  the  first  half-year.  His  school  progress  from 
that  time  on  was  very  good.  He  not  only  kept  up, 
but  made  some  advance,  and  though  he  finished  the 
eighth  grade  one  year  behind  the  usual  age,  he  went 
out  into  the  world  well  equipped  with  a  strong  body 
and  a  good  mind,  and  since  that  time  has  done  well 
in  a  printing  office,  where  his  father  secured  him  a 
position.  Without  doubt  he  will  rise  to  a  self-sup- 
porting and  worthy  man,  and  possibly  he  will  be 
heard  from  in  the  world.  Miss  F.  still  points  to  him 
as  one  of  her  most  hopeless  appearing  cases  and  one 
of  her  most  successful  reclamations.  Whenever 
she  gets  discouraged  with  her  special  class  she  thinks 
of  Joe  and  takes  heart  again. 


CHAPTER  IV 

MINDS   IN   STRAIGHT   JACKETS 

BACKWARD  children  do  not  present  one  type 
of  mind,  but  many  types.  They  do  not  neces- 
sarily think  slowly,  but  sometimes  think  with  spark- 
ling rapidity.  Their  minds  do  not  always  develop 
slowly,  but  sometimes  leap  from  stage  to  stage  with 
wonderful  strides.  They  are  not  always  dull  or 
stupid,  but  break  out  in  unexpected  flashes  of  wit. 
They  are  genuises  in  some  things,  fools  in  others. 
They  are  good  and  bad,  cheerful  and  morose, 
excitable  and  apathetic,  a  medley  of  emotions,  a  tur- 
moil of  thoughts,  an  anarchy  of  actions.  Their 
variety  of  types  among  the  temporarily  retarded 
escapes  analysis,  breaks  through  hard  and  fast  class- 
ifications, defies  rules  and  regulations,  overturns  me- 
chanical systems  of  instruction,  falsifies  predictions 
of  their  development,  humiliates  prophets,  and,  best 
of  all,  banishes  hopelessness  regarding  the  outcome 
of  any  one  of  their  lives.  A  few  examples  are  given 
in  this  chapter  to  illustrate  the  attitude  to  be  taken 
toward  some  of  the  commoner  types.  Because  back- 
wardness usually  means  slowness,  the  first  is  the 
story  of  a  slow  boy,  an  impatient  teacher  and  an  in- 

58 


MINDS    IN    STRAIGHT   JACKETS      59 

terlocked  course  of  study  which  demanded  the  same 
toll  from  every  child  who  traveled  that  way. 

The  Slow  Pupil. — Karl  was  a  boy  in  a  country 
school.  He  was  slow  in  everything.  He  was  lag- 
ging in  his  movements,  dragging  in  his  speech,  delib- 
erate in  his  thought  processes,  and  interminable  in 
acquiring  new  ideas.  Yet  his  work  was  good  when 
It  was  completed.  Given  a  problem  to  work  out, 
and  left  to  himself,  he  would  usually  get  it,  and 
when  he  got  it  it  was  almost  always  correct.  In 
arithmetic,  therefore,  he  did  not  suffer  so  much.  In 
oral  work  like  reading,  spelling,  parsing  and  analyz- 
ing sentences  in  class,  in  reciting  of  every  kind,  he 
was  wearisome.  Examinations  were  written,  so 
though  he  hardly  ever  finished  on  time  he  was  just 
able  to  get  through,  because  what  he  answered  was 
about  correct.  Unfortunately  for  Karl  he  had  a 
teacher  w^ho  was  a  high-strung  woman,  who  be- 
lieved that  good  scholarship  meant  speed,  and  that 
heaven  and  earth  might  pass  away,  but  every  jot  and 
tittle  of  the  text-book  must  be  fulfilled  in  the  allotted 
time.  Furthermore,  he  was  unfortunate  in  having 
this  same  teacher  for  practically  his  entire  school 
life.  She  did  not  spare  him.  She  let  him  know, 
and  the  whole  school  and  the  whole  neighborhood 
know,  that  Karl  was  a  stupid,  dull-witted  fellow, 
with  no  brains  and  no  prospect  of  ever  acquiring 
any.  The  frequency  with  which  she  said  it,  the  way 
she  said  it,  and  the  conviction  that  she  produced  in 
the  minds  of  other  pupils  about  it  would  have  ut- 


60  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

terly  discouraged  any  other  person  differently  con- 
stituted. But  Karl,  slow  as  the  proverbial  tortoise, 
also  had  the  fine  qualities  of  that  humble  animal. 
He  held  on,  plodded  through  the  grades  with  imper- 
turbable patience,  just  squeezing  through  examina- 
tions, accompanied  by  the  pity  of  his  schoolmates, 
the  disappointment  of  his  parents  and  the  increas- 
ing exasperation  of  his  teacher,  and  finally  left 
school  followed  by  a  sigh  of  relief  in  lieu  of  the 
usual  congratulations. 

He  entered  a  machine  shop  in  a  neighboring  city, 
and  started  at  the  same  time  to  learn  mechanical 
drawing  at  night.  He  was  still  slow,  but  it  was  in 
a  business  where  accuracy  counted  for  more  than 
careless  speed,  where  a  mistake  might  cost  thou- 
sands of  dollars,  and  where  absolute  reliability, 
coupled  with  unconquerable  tenacity,  was  sure  to 
overcome  obstacles  and  make  success.  Karl  had  the 
qualities.  In  both  shop  work  and  mechanical  draw- 
ing he  forged  surely  ahead.  His  drawing  plates 
were  models  of  neatness  and  exactness.  His  initial 
impetus  to  self-confidence  came  in  his  winning  the 
medal  in  the  night  school  class  for  the  best  drawing 
of  the  season.  He  learned  his  trade,  gradually  grav- 
itated to  the  tool  room  where  the  dies  for  stamping 
metal  were  made,  distinguished  himself  for  his  fine 
workmanship  there,  applied  his  mind  to  improving 
the  methods  of  making  dies  and  to  shortening  me- 
chanical processes  by  means  of  them,  and  at  thirty- 
five  was  at  the  head  of  that  branch  of  work  in  his 


MINDS    IN    STRAIGHT   JACKETS      61 

city,  already  an  inventor  of  no  mean  fame,  and  giv- 
ing promise  of  a  greater  future,  the  most  creditable 
pupil  his  impatient  teacher  ever  turned  out  of  her 
little  country  school. 

With  the  same  quiet  persistence  he  had  kept  up 
other  intellectual  activities,  had  become  a  splendid 
mathematician,  a  deep  reader  in  the  literature  of 
his  profession  and  its  allied  branches,  and  alto- 
gether one  of  the  best  versed,  soundest  cultured  men 
with  whom  you  might  wish  to  spend  a  day.  He 
had  a  mind  strong,  capable,  varied  in  powers,  but 
always  slow  moving.  For  such  a  slow  but  thorough 
mind,  not  quantity  of  practise  counts,  but  practise 
taken  as  leisurely  as  it  desires.  Where  other  chil- 
dren might  need  to  work  ten  problems  to  inculcate 
exactness,  Karl  needed  to  work  but  one:  Had  his 
teacher  been  able  to  diagnose  his  case  and  to  fit 
her  teachings  to  him,  Karl  would  have  made  in 
actual  acquisition  of  knowledge  in  a  given  time, 
as  much  progress  as  the  average  pupil  and  that 
knowledge  would  have  remained  with  him  forever. 

The  Concrete  Mind. — The  slow  boy  is  not  the 
only  one  whom  the  course  of  study  and  the  method 
of  teaching  in  the  public  school  do  not  fit.  Obser- 
vations in  many  far-removed  places  indicate  that 
there  is  a  type  of  mind  which  fails  ignominiously 
to  grasp  knowledge  when  presented  in  the  abstract 
or  by  means  of  symbols,  but  which  readily  seizes 
upon  the  concrete  and  revels  in  things  which  the 
eye  sees  and  the  hands  handle.     Such  children  are 


62  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

often  considered  to  be  predestined  to  manual  labor, 
tillers  of  the  soil  by  right  of  birth,  hewers  of  wood 
and  drawers  of  water,  shut  out  of  the  upper  realms 
where  the  intellectuals  who  read,  write  and  reckon, 
dwell.  Shut  out,  they  often  are,  but  not  so  much 
by  Providence  as  by  a  steel-riveted  school-system 
called  ^'common"  or  universal.  Here  is  such  a  case 
from  Miss  Elizabeth  FarreFs  report  from  New 
York  City.  Note  the  cry  of  such  a  mind  for  its 
opportunity  to  secure  an  education. 

This  boy,  fourteen  years  old,  can  not  spell  words 
like  "girl,"  does  not  know  how  much  are  three  times 
twelve ;  and  reads  second  readers  only.  Yet  his  gen- 
eral information  is  fair;  his  attention  and  memory 
are  good ;  and  at  night  he  reads  his  lessons  over  and 
over  for  fear  of  his  father  and  teachers  who  ''think 
he  is  lazy  and  unwilling  to  learn."  While  fourteen 
winters  and  summers  have  built  up  this  boy's  body 
to  its  height  and  weight,  his  intellect  is  equal  to 
that  of  a  seven-year-old  child. 

But  when  he  is  freed  from  purely  intellectual 
matters  and  turns  to  manual  work  the  miracle  is 
wrought.  All  his  physical  training  is  good,  at 
school  the  teachers  have  him  doing  all  sorts  of 
work.  He  is  especially  interested  in  electrical  ap- 
paratus and  keeps  all  the  electrical  bells  in  repair 
at  home.  One  summer  he  wanted  a  bicycle  and 
wanted  it  as  only  a  boy  can  want  a  thing.  He 
managed  to  unearth  two  old  bicycles  and  proposed 
to  make  one  good  one  out  of  them.    In  spite  of  as- 


MINDS    IN    STRAIGHT   JACKETS      63 

surances  from  wiser  heads  that  it  could  not  be  done, 
he  went  right  ahead,  took  apart,  made  over,  re-ar- 
ranged, planned  and  perspired  until  he  had  accom- 
plished his  purpose  and  rode  his  contraption  about 
the  country  roads  as  happy  as  a  millionaire  in  a 
touring  car. 

His  disposition  is  good,  but  with  home,  school 
and  society  against  him,  it  is  growing  worse. 
Under  the  criticism  he  receives  he  is  gradually  sink- 
ing. He  does  not  play  naturally,  he  tends  to  spend 
his  time  alone;  his  shyness,  timidity,  feeling  of 
inadequacy  and  doubt  are  slowly  building  around 
him  the  prison  walls  of  failure  within  which  he 
will  be  confined  a  morose  and  solitary  soul.  Such 
would  be  the  inevitable  outcome  under  ordinary 
circumstances;  but  it  will  not  be  the  end  here,  be- 
cause there  is  a  special  class  and  a  teacher  who 
understands  this  cry  of  his:  "I  don't  know  why 
I  can't  get  on  at  school ;  I  can't  spell  nor  write  nor 
do  arithmetic.  I  can  do  any  sort  of  hand- work; 
I  seem  to  understand  that  by  nature,  but  I  can't 
carry  anything  in  my  mind.  I  mean  I  can't  see  a 
thing  in  the  shop  window  and  go  home  and  make 
any  part  of  the  toy  or  machine  by  having  just  seen 
it  in  the  shop.  I  want  to  be  an  electrician,  but 
realize  I  must  know  more  about  books  if  I  am  to 
do  any  good  work  in  life.  If  I  could  get  an  edu- 
cation through  my  hands  it  would  be  easy." 

The  Salvation  of  Sam. — Out  in  the  mountains 
of  western   Pennsylvania,   a     great  hulking  boy, 


64  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

large  for  his  age  of  sixteen,  was  in  his  first  year  of 
high  school.  He  was  strong  and  healthy,  with  a 
frank  open  face,  and  eyes  that  looked  the  simplicity 
of  the  mind  back  of  them.  There  was  nothing 
unusual  in  his  personal  appearance.  He  would 
have  been  taken  by  any  casual  onlooker  for  a  typical 
high-school  boy  with  evident  predilection  for  ath- 
letics. The  more  thoughtful  observer  would  have 
wondered  why  he  was  sixteen  and  just  entering 
high  school.  The  fact  was  that  he  was  a  retarded 
boy,  presenting  a  not  very  unusual  type  of  mind 
which  could  deal  efficiently  and  sometimes  even 
originally  with  concrete  things,  but  groped  almost 
hopelessly  in  semi-darkness  among  the  abstractions 
of  any  pure  science  or  symbolic  knowledge. 

His  schooling  in  the  grades  had  been  a  long- 
drawn  struggle,  always  verging  on  failure.  He 
had  fallen  behind  his  schoolmates  until  he  was  two 
years  retarded.  His  teachers  had  lost  heart  and 
hope  and  had  promoted  him  from  grade  to  grade 
on  his  age,  on  half  what  he  should  have  known, 
and  in  answer  to  his  mother's  importunate  prayers. 
He  could  not  handle  arithmetical  relations  with 
any  facility,  though  he  could  count  money  readily, 
could  make  change  and  could  see  far  into  prob- 
lems of  mensuration  when  illustrated  with  any  kind 
of  models.  He  read  but  poorly,  had  no  taste  for 
literature,  spelled  atrociously,  learned  his  geography 
from  the  maps  and  his  hygiene  from  the  charts, 
remembered  his  history  from  what  his  mother  read 


MINDS   IN   STRAIGHT   JACKETS      65 

him  at  home  and  from  the  pictures,  and  so  blun- 
dered along.  In  grammar  he  could  not  comprehend 
the  sense  or  necessity  for  saying  'T'  in  some  places 
and  "me''  in  others,  and  mixed  "done''  and  "did" 
hopelessly.  In  fact,  he  was  not  much  of  a  talker, 
and  when  he  did  say  anything,  he  used  the  simple^ 
and  incorrect  language  of  his  home  and  his  school 
companions.  His  handwriting  was  unformed  and 
boyish  and,  when  he  wrote  an  original  composition, 
he  showed  a  remarkable  dearth  of  ideas  and  sim- 
plicity of  inner  life  in  thought  and  feeling.  In 
short,  at  sixteen  years  of  age,  in  all  book  knowledge, 
Sam  was  a  boy  of  eleven  or  twelve  years  with  little 
hope  of  going  far  beyond  that. 

His  character  and  conduct  were  all  that  could 
be  desired.  He  was  good  natured,  with  a  slow 
easy  disposition,  rather  shy,  and  avoided  company 
instead  of  seeking  it.  In  the  schoolroom  he  seemed 
to  try  in  a  dull  slave-minded  way  to  get  his  lessons, 
and  on  the  playground  he  looked  on  while  others 
played  oftener  than  he  himself  played.  After 
school,  and  during  vacation,  he  spent  much  time 
out-of-doors.  He  waded  the  mountain  streams, 
tramped  the  woods,  knew  the  beasts  and  birds, 
which  he  studied  with  curiosity,  but  without  system, 
but  never  hunted  or  killed,  though  he  came  to  know 
intuitively  their  songs,  cries,  nesting  times  and  hid- 
ing-places. 

At  home  he  was  the  same  good-natured  fellow, 
doing  his  few  chores  and  taking  his  rebukes  for 


66  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

his  poor  scholarship  from  his  ambitious  mother 
and  more  phlegmatic  father  with  a  wondering  pa- 
tience and  virtuous  humility.  His  home  was  the 
usual  one  belonging  to  a  foreman  in  a  small  boiler 
shop.  His  father  had  never  learned  much  in  school, 
had  left  before  he  completed  the  grades  and  had 
slowly  risen  to  his  present  position  by  diligent  work 
and  knowledge  of  his  trade  gained  wholly  by  in- 
tuition and  rule-of-thumb  practise. 

Sam's  mother  was  the  head  of  the  family.  It 
had  long  been  her  ambition  to  make  something 
more  of  her  only  child  than  his  father  ever  prom- 
ised to  be.  Like  all  good  mothers  she  thought  the 
only  road  to  glory  lay  through  the  well-ordered 
demesne  of  public  schools.  So  far  she  had  been 
little  encouraged  by  Sam's  progress,  but  her  un- 
faltering ambition  had  kept  him  in  the  grades  and 
had  finally  started  him  in  high  school,  two  years 
behind  the  usual  age,  generally  retarded,  and  espe- 
cially lacking  in  power  to  comprehend  book  knowl- 
edge. 

There  his  reception  was  anything  but  cordial. 
Living  as  he  did  in  a  small  town,  the  high-school 
teachers  knew  him  by  reputation,  and  were 
acquainted,  too,  with  the  pertinacity  of  Sam's 
mother,  who  was  determined  not  to  let  him  fail  nor 
to  remove  him  from  school  until  he  had  secured  the 
coveted  high-school  diploma.  Since  Sam  was  in 
nowise  prepared  for  the  ordinary  work  of  the  sec- 
ondary school,  since  Latin,  or  any  other  language 


MINDS    IN    STRAIGHT   JACKETS      67 

was  wholly  out  of  the  question,  since  general  re- 
tardation made  the  subject  of  English,  or  litera- 
ture, or  pure  mathematics,  almost  hopeless  tasks, 
they  looked  on  the  necessity  of  teaching  him  with 
anything  but  enthusiasm. 

Fortunately  for  Sam,  he  and  manual  training 
entered  the  high  school  together.  He  had  handled 
tools  more  or  less  at  home.  Very  likely  he  would 
have  done  more  of  such  work  had  his  father's  oc- 
cupation been  one  that  lent  itself  easily  to  home 
practise,  or  one  that  necessitated  a  work-bench  and 
chest  of  tools  in  the  cellar.  But  his  work  was  con- 
fined to  the  shop,  and  by  his  wife's  command  he 
left  his  menial  tasks  behind  him  when  he  came 
home.  Hence  Sam's  real  introduction  to  tools  and 
hand-work,  carpenter's  benches,  lathes,  anvils, 
forges,  and  all  the  practicalities  of  the  new  educa- 
tion came  in  the  high  school.  It  w^as  a  veritable 
entrance  upon  a  new  life.  For  him,  things  seen, 
things  palpable  and  tangible  which  the  hands  handle 
and  the  muscles  strained  over  comprised  the  eternal 
verities  of  existence  and  spoke  inspiring  words  to 
his  innermost  soul.  School,  heretofore  a  word  of 
stagnant  meaning  and  a  place  of  dead  monotony, 
became  gradually  a  center  of  vivacious  interest  and 
vital  powers. 

He  took  up  the  course  in  manual  training.  That 
relieved  him  from  the  abstract  studies  like  lan- 
guages. He  responded  readily  to  the  mechanical 
work,  loved  the  forge,  the  machine  shop,  and  the 


68  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

work-bench.  His  interest  did  not  cease  with  the 
school  hours,  but  he  carried  his  zeal  for  his  work 
into  his  home,  and,  in  spite  of  the  half-hearted  op- 
position of  his  mother,  and  with  the  ready  acqui- 
escence of  his  father,  he  set  about  arranging  a 
workshop  in  the  cellar,  and  gradually  accumulated 
a  set  of  tools.  Inspired  partly  by  his  father's  trade, 
and  partly  by  his  innate  desire  to  make  something 
that  moved,  he  spent  his  evenings  for  many  months 
building  and  assembling  a  small  steam-engine.  The 
parts  of  it  came  from  many  places  and  by  devious 
routes  to  their  ultimate  destination.  The  machine 
was  fearfully  and  wonderfully  made.  It  was  un- 
wieldy and  ill  proportioned,  but  when  it  was  fin- 
ished, the  oil  lamp  lighted  underneath  the  boiler 
made  from  a  cut-down  kitchen  range  water  tank, 
the  steam  finally  turned  on,  and  with  sundry  wheez- 
ings  and  sputter ings,  the  wabbly  flywheel  of  the 
engine  started,  Sam  heaved  one  great  sigh  of  relief, 
and  for  almost  the  first  time  in  his  life,  drank  in 
draft  on  draft  from  the  full  cup  of  success.  He 
had  made  something  and  it  would  go.  He  had 
conceived  an  idea,  imperfectly,  vaguely,  dimly  at 
first,  but  it  had  unfolded  as  he  advanced  with  his 
work,  and  piece  by  piece  it  had  grown  until  what 
at  first  seemed  to  him  but  an  impossible  dream  of 
the  night,  now  stood  there  a  concrete  and  animated 
reality.  How  much  that  poor  accomplishment 
meant  to  that  groping  soul,  how  it  gave  him  the 
sense  of  power  to  grip  his  heretofore  flitting  ideas, 


MINDS   IN    STRAIGHT   JACKETS      69 

how,  for  the  first  time  in  his  conscious  Hfe,  ideas 
themselves  became  sources  of  great  possible  achieve- 
ments, nobody  will  ever  know.  It  must  all  be 
guessed  by  what  accompanied  and  followed  that 
steam-engine  building. 

In  the  meantime,  his  schooling  had  gone  on. 
His  manual  work  improved  in  its  quality.  It  was 
not  better  than  that  of  the  best  students,  for  Sam 
was  never  a  brilliant  pupil  in  anything,  but  it  was 
as  good  as  the  best,  and  wonderfully  good  in  com- 
parison to  his  book  studies.  It  made  his  teachers 
more  lenient  with  him  in  other  things.  It  brought 
the  feeling  of  ability  and  acquainted  him  with  the 
inspiration  of  success,  and  that  again  served  to 
spur  him  on  to  harder  work  in  other  directions. 
Then,  too,  it  offered  him  living  points  of  contact 
with  other  studies,  and  in  this  respect,  more  than 
any  other  study,  mechanical  drawing  served  him 
best.  It  stood  for  him  at  the  center  of  the  intricate 
web  of  knowledge,  from  which  in  one  direction  his 
mind  went  out  readily  to  his  beloved  mechanical 
operations,  and  in  the  other,  felt  its  way  with  in- 
creasing certainty  through  the  dawning  twilight  of 
abstract  knowledge.  The  kernel  of  the  matter  was 
contained  in  the  process  of  forming  and  elaborating 
an  idea,  then  rendering  that  idea  visible  on  paper, 
and  then,  by  those  paper  directions,  transforming 
it  into  a  palpable,  tangible  thing  of  beauty  and  joy 
forever.  It  was  just  the  process  needed  by  a  mind 
like  Sam's,  and  just  that  process  which  his  primary 


70  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

school  never  offered,  and  which  his  mother,  in  her 
uninformed  zeal  for  "education,"  had  opposed  at 
home. 

New  terms  came  with  these  studies  and  his  vo- 
cabulary grew  apace.  The  necessity  for  exact 
legends  on  drawings  compelled  him  to  spell  ac- 
curately. His  handwriting  was  always  fair  and  his 
lettering  was  especially  good.  Free-hand  drawing 
came  to  him  rapidly  and  easily.  He  began  to  search 
mechanical  journals  for  ideas  and  that  helped  his 
reading,  but  it  must  be  confessed  that  Sam  never 
did  take  to  literature  and  the  school  methods  never 
helped  him  much  there.  He  grew  to  see  the  use  of 
mathematics.  Fundamentals  like  multiplication 
tables  became  usable  and  time-saving  devices  and 
accordingly  of  increased  value  and  interest.  Plane 
and  solid  geometry  acquired  meanings  beyond  the 
confusing  patterns  of  purely  imaginary  lines  and 
surfaces.  On  the  whole,  he  pursued  his  course 
steadily,  gaining  in  all  his  studies,  and  developing 
in  his  mentality.  No  special  methods  were  used  to 
teach  him  in  his  classes.  Possibly  the  rapid  increase 
in  mental  power  accompanying  and  following 
pubescence,  corrected  a  disparity  between  his  previ- 
ous physical  and  mental  development,  and  gave  him 
the  necessary  power  to  seize  upon  his  manual  train- 
ing and  to  see  through  the  concrete  to  the  abstract. 
At  any  rate,  he  did  grow. 

His  great  awakening  dated  from  the  steam- 
engine.    That  was  a  home  affair.    His  great  school 


MINDS   IN   STRAIGHT   JACKETS      71 

victory  came  when  one  day  toward  the  end  of  his 
three  years'  course,  his  teacher  announced  that  a 
chair  was  to  be  buih  for  an  educational  exhibit  in 
the  state  capitol.  The  crowning  piece  of  work  was 
to  be  the  back,  the  honor  of  carving  which  was  to 
go  to  the  student  offering  the  best  original  design. 
Sam  went  into  the  competition  with  a  fearful 
fluttering  heart.  He  worked  nights,  feeling  his 
way  into  the  invisible  and  unknown  for  his  design. 
He  faltered  more  than  once,  but  the  designing  of 
the  old  steam-engine  came  back  to  him  as  he  toiled, 
and  the  lessons  he  learned  with  it  carried  him 
through  this  infinitely  larger  task.  Probably  no 
other  boy  in  that  class  took  the  matter  so  to  heart; 
certainly  no  other  one  toiled  so  hard.  Possibly  it 
was  as  much  the  marks  of  infinite  pains  as  orig- 
inality of  design  that  made  the  judges  award  Sam 
the  privilege  of  making  the  piece  of  honor.  The 
report  came  to  him  with  much  of  the  old  thrill  ex- 
perienced when  his  crazy  engine  started,  but  ac- 
companied with  a  humility  and  self-control  not  then 
known.  The  carving  was  yet  to  be  done,  but  it  was 
carried  on  with  all  the  painstaking  care  of  an  artist 
engaged  upon  an  altar  piece,  and  when  it  was  fin- 
ished, it  was  a  credit  to  the  school.  Some  months 
later  Sam  stood  in  the  capitol,  saw  with  his  own 
eyes  the  very  work  of  his  hands,  looking  strange 
and  yet  familiar  as  it  stood  on  its  platform,  and 
experienced  the  rare  pleasure-pain  of  hearing  a 
work  praised  of  which  he  knew  the  defects  as  only 


\^' 


n  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

the  man  who  wrought  the  work  could  possibly  know 
them. 

He  was  graduated  with  his  class.  He  did  not 
win  any  honors.  He  was  not  on  the  commence- 
ment program,  but  he  probably  learned  more  in  four 
years  than  any  other  student  in  the  class.  His 
mother  was  as  happy  as  any  woman  there  that  night. 
Then  Sam  went  to  work  in  the  drafting  room  of 
the  shop  in  which  his  father  worked. 

He  worked  hard  and  was  advanced  rapidly. 
To-day  he  is  a  designer  of  machinery  in  a  large 
manufactory,  holding  a  responsible  position  and 
sure  of  advancement.  He  is  devoted  to  his  work, 
faithful,  enthusiastic,  untiring,  inventive,  still  a 
little  uncertain  of  his  grammar,  not  talkative  nor 
given  much  to  society,  but  he  is  a  strong  man  in  his 
profession  and  may  some  day  reach  the  top. 

When  one  stops  and  thinks  what  he  might  have 
been  had  he  been  continuously  forced  to  grapple 
with  the  abstract  problems  of  the  ordinary  high- 
school  course  based  upon  literature,  languages,  pure 
mathematics  ^nd  pure  sciences,  until  he  either  failed 
ignominiously  or  had  rebelled  against  further 
schooling  and  gone  out  into  the  world  untrained  in 
anything,  and  fit  only  for  the  least  skilled  labor, 
without  a  sense  of  success,  and  with  the  habit  of 
failure,  then  the  real  magnitude  of  his  development 
can  be  measured. 

Backward  Because  Not  Interested  In  Lessons. 
— Few  children  in  the  world  wholly  lack  interest. 


MINDS   IN    STRAIGHT   JACKETS      73 

They  are  always  interested  in  a  few  things  and 
usually  interested  in  many  things.  In  fact,  their 
fault  lies  in  the  large  number  and  the  lightning-like 
changes  of  their  interests  rather  than  in  the  fewness 
of  them.  Hence,  we  frequently  blame  them  because 
their  attention,  unlike  that  of  grown  people,  is  not 
subdued  to  a  durable  and  lasting  concentration  on 
one  or  two  subjects,  and  modified  by  experience  to 
a  mildness  that  does  not  interfere  with  good  judg- 
ment. Sometimes,  however,  a  child  does  display 
an  attention  similar  to  that  of  a  specialist.  In  that 
case  the  child  gets  no  credit  for  the  display,  but 
immediately  becomes  the  object  of  most  solicitous 
attention  and  urgent  treatment.  Especially  is  this 
true  where  the  interest  is  wholly  consumed  on  mat- 
ters not  pertaining  to  lessons,  or  to  those  activi- 
ties common  to  other  children,  or  to  society.  As 
a  result  of  the  child's  narrow  interest,  he  will  attend 
to  only  a  few  activities  and  neglect  others.  Re- 
tardation in  the  larger  affairs  of  life  and  in  school 
is  the  inevitable  result.  This  may  be  much  or  little 
depending  upon  the  degree  of  attention  remaining 
for  those  things  we  call  lessons.  In  some  cases  the 
lack  of  attention  appears  to  be  absolutely  patholog- 
ical. All  such  instances,  however,  must  not  be  taken 
to  indicate  hopeless  mental  retardation  for  life,  as 
I  shall  try  to  show  in  the  following  example. 

Katie,  let  us  call  her,  was  a  little  girl  who  spent 
the  first  nine  years  of  her  life  without  sisters  or 
brothers,  or  playmates,    When  other  girls  of  her 


^J 


74  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

age  were  in  school  in  the  third  or  fourth  grades, 
she  was  at  home  in  a  room,  sitting  all  day  alone 
talking  to  herself  in  a  very  limited  vocabulary,  play- 
ing with  the  ragged  dolls  of  her  own  simple  manu- 
facture, eating  rudely  and  crudely  her  meals  by 
herself,  since  her  lack  of  manners  forbade  her 
eating  with  grown  people,  speaking  to  others  almost 
never,  and  answering  when  spoken  to  only  in  mono- 
syllables, signs,  or  meaningless  grunts.  She  needed 
constant  attention;  she  could  not  be  permitted  to 
go  much  out-of-doors;  she  could  not  play  at  all 
with  other  children.  In  short,  all  who  knew  her 
thought  her  to  be  an  idiot,  or  an  imbecile  at  best, 
without  much  mind  and  without  hope  of  ever  arriv- 
ing at  any  but  the  simplest  lessons  of  life.  Such 
was  Katie  at  nine  years  of  age. 

Then  her  parents  heard  of  some  children  similar 
to  her  who  had  been  wonderfully  helped  by  special 
training  and  she  was  taken  to  a  clinic.  There  the 
psychologist  examined  her  carefully  and  found 
nothing  in  her  family  history  or  her  own  life  to 
substantiate  genuine  feeble-mindedness.  Diphtheria 
in  her  early  childhood  had  caused  some  retardation 
of  her  growth  and  activities,  and  this,  combined 
with  her  subsequent  loneliness  and  neglect,  had 
prevented  her  mind  from  expanding  as  it  should 
have  done.  Her  physical  condition  was  fair;  she 
had  no  special  defects  of  the  senses;  she  ate,  slept, 
played  in  her  own  way.  But  she  did  not  pay  at- 
tention to  lessons,  people,  or  things;  she  seemed  to 


MINDS    IN    STRAIGHT   JACKETS      75 

have  no  interest;  there  appeared  no  way  to  arouse 
her  dormant  faculties  to  any  realization  of  the  daily 
events  about  her ;  she  lacked  the  curiosity,  the  desire 
for  novelty,  and  the  enthusiasm  of  normal  children. 
While  not  positively  bad  or  unruly  in  any  way 
except  one,  she  was  immune  to  the  effects  of  all 
the  usual  punishments  and  rewards  to  arouse  her 
to  an  interest  in  duties  and  studies  usual  to  the  aver- 
age child.  Her  parents  had  tried  in  their  way  but 
had  failed.  The  father  was  a  busy  man,  away  from 
home  much  of  the  time,  and  the  mother  was  a  frail 
delicate  woman  who  did  not  possess  the  health  or 
the  energy  to  do  what  was  necessary  to  train  so 
strange  a  child.  Katie  had  been  left  largely  in  the 
hands  of  nurses  in  her  babyhood  and  largely  to 
herself  in  her  childhood.  Much  of  this  neglect  was 
also  due  to  her  terrible  temper.  If  any  attempt  was 
made  to  force  her  to  some  task  or  to  prevent  her 
from  doing  the  few  simple  things  she  liked  to  do, 
she  first  paid  no  attention,  then  grew  sullen,  then 
broke  out  into  a  paroxysm  of  anger,  ending  by 
crying,  screaming,  scratching,  kicking  and  biting. 
Nothing  would  stop  the  attack  except  letting  her 
alone,  and  that  her  mother  and  nurse  had  learned 
to  do.  Under  these  conditions,  lacking,  as  she  did, 
those  springs  within  herself  which  force  normal 
children  to  explore  the  world  in  which  they  find 
themselves,  this  child  had  lived  a  strange  isolated 
existence,  shut  up  in  the  fancies  of  her  own  mind, 
knowing  little  and  caring  less  for  the  great  world 


76  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

of  interests  that  fills  the  lives  of  others.  To  the 
innumerable  marvels  of  this  world  she  was  insen- 
sible. She  was  psychically  blind,  deaf,  dumb,  almost 
without  human  emotions,  desires,  thoughts  or  vo- 
litions. 

On  the  advice  of  the  specialist  a  teacher  was 
secured.  This  woman  came  to  live  in  the  home. 
She  began  with  a  quiet  study  of  her  strange  charge. 
/  She  found  that  Katie,  though  almost  absolutely 
V  destitute  of  interests,  did  have  a  few.  While  most 
of  the  time  during  the  day  she  sat,  wide-eyed  and 
wondering,  with  mind  apparently  blank,  or  mut- 
tered words  to  herself,  at  other  times,  she  repeated 
over  and  over  again  rhythmic  syllables  without 
meaning  and  with  little  tune,  but  in  a  sing-song 
manner.  That  was  a  clue  to  the  teacher.  When 
Katie  "tra-la-la-ed,"  the  teacher  did  the  same  and 
they  both  fell  into  unison.  Katie  seemed  to  enjoy 
it.  She  kept  up  the  exercise  longer  than  when  she 
did  it  alone.  Next,  the  teacher  noted  if  she  began 
it  first  and  kept  it  up  for  a  little  while,  Katie  would 
also  begin  the  rhythm. 

The  next  stage  came  when  the  little  girl  showed 
by  unmistakable  signs  that  she  was  actually  enjoy- 
ing the  fun ;  and  the  next  when  she  made  it  known 
by  pulling  the  teacher's  hand,  grunting  that  she 
wanted  her  teacher  to  "sing"  with  her.  It  was  easy 
to  fix  a  sign  to  this  desire  and  Katie  learned  the 
"ting"  and  learned  to  iterate  it,  with  sundry  other 
signs,  until  the  teacher  would  start  the  tune.    From 


MINDS  IN  STRAIGHT  JACKETS  ^7 

those  simple  beginnings  came  the  whole  after-train- 
ing of  the  little  girl  who  seemed  at  first  so  hopeless. 

A  piano  was  added  to  the  equipment  and  the 
teacher  drummed  upon  it  the  rhythmic  scale  they 
had  been  singing.  At  first  the  music  fell  upon 
dead  ears.  Gradually,  however,  the  strange  girl 
whose  only  interest  was  in  rhythm,  began  to  note 
the  sound  and  to  fall  into  harmony  with  it  until, 
as  in  her  previous  accompaniment  of  her  teacher's 
voice,  she  likewise  learned  to  follow  the  piano. 
That  was  a  great  event  and  the  teacher's  joy  in  it 
was  faintly  shared  by  the  groping  mind  beginning 
to  taste  for  the  first  time  the  pleasure  of  attainment. 
From  notes  and  snatches  of  melody,  more  or  less 
disconnected,  they  went  on  to  little  songs.  Words 
were  added,  albeit  slowly  and  laboriously,  until 
Katie's  monotonous  life  became  comparatively  rich 
and  variegated  in  its  new  activities. 

Along  with  the  singing  and  music  Katie  learned 
to  beat  time;  first  with  her  hands  and  then  with 
her  feet.  Very  soon,  for  she  began  to  show  a 
genius  for  such  things,  she  proceeded  to  dancing; 
and  with  that  came  a  whole  flood  of  health-giving 
and  developing  exercises.  Then  her  teacher  ven- 
tured to  take  her  to  a  theater  where  dancing  occu- 
pied a  large  part  in  the  performance.  In  the  life 
of  this  little  hermit  that  day  was  a  pilgrimage  to 
a  promised  land.  She  came  home  burning  with  a 
new  ambition.  She  was  wild  to  imitate  what  she 
had  seen.     She  practised  her  dancing  with  all  her 


78  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

might  and  learned  it  rapidly.  Theater-going  be- 
came a  part  of  her  education;  its  sights  and  sounds 
were  the  stimulators  of  her  endeavors  and  the  re- 
wards of  her  achievements;  the  stage  was  the  goal 
of  her  ambition. 

One  day  she  thought  of  the  clothes  those  splendid 
people  on  the  stage  wore.  She  wanted  dresses  like 
them.  Her  wise  teacher  saw  another  opportunity 
and  proposed  that  they  make  the  dresses  themselves. 
That  introduced  into  the  curriculum  all  the  mys- 
teries and  discipline  of  sewing.  How  that  pro- 
ceeded, first  painfully  and  laboriously,  but  finally 
triumphantly,  I  must  let  the  teacher  who  has  taught 
it  imagine.  When  Katie,  arrayed  in  one  of  her 
own  creations,  preened  herself  before  the  mirror, 
which  had  been  brought  into  her  room,  and  then 
pirouetted  across  the  room  like  the  great  ladies  of 
the  stage  world,  she  did  it  with  all  the  abandon  of 
a  normal  child  dressed  in  her  mother's  skirts. 

From  dancing  and  costuming,  it  was  only  a  step 
to  acting,  to  repeating  dialogues,  at  first  elementary, 
incoherent  and  sketchy;  from  dialogues  to  recita- 
tions, committed  to  memory  with  rapidly  increasing 
power  under  the  stimulation  of  great  and  enthusi- 
astic interest.  Under  such  tuition,  Katie's  mind 
grew  like  a  long-delayed  plant  taken  from  the  cellar 
and  set  in  the  sun.  Her  power  of  concentration 
grew  daily  and  her  memory  with  it ;  her  vocabulary 
multiplied  itself;  her  increasing  powers  of  acquisi- 
tion naturally  led  her  on  to  continually  more  am- 


MINDS   IN    STRAIGHT   JACKETS      79 

bitious  tasks,  and  keen  enjoyment  of  her  new-found 
varieties  of  self-expression  spurred  her  to  continu- 
ous effort.  The  balance  maintained  between  the 
exercise  contained  in  dancing  and  sewing  and  the 
mental  activity  found  in  memorizing  and  reciting, 
saved  her  from  any  untoward  effects  which  she 
might  have  suffered  from  a  too  rapid  mental 
growth. 

Her  teacher  had  wisely  left  her  moral  training 
in  the  background.  Her  temper  had  been  the  chief 
obstacle  to  any  education  that  her  mother  might 
have  given  her.  Coercion  of  any  kind,  as  I  have 
already  said,  had  always  thrown  her  into  tantrums, 
which  ended  in  complete  collapses  for  her  mother 
and  nervous  spasms  for  herself.  Though  the  fre- 
quency of  such  outbreaks  had  continually  dimin- 
ished with  the  multiplication  of  her  interests,  they 
still  remained,  and  on  occasions,  Katie  showed  with 
due  fierceness  her  old-time  paroxysms.  She  soon 
found,  however,  that  her  steady-nerved  teacher  did 
not  collapse  and  give  up.  She  was  told  also  that 
whenever  she  gave  way  to  such  tempers  she  would 
not  be  taken  to  the  beloved  theater,  and  found  that 
when  such  an  edict  went  forth,  it  was  irrevocable. 
Though  she  screamed,  stamped,  danced  and  threw 
herself  on  the  floor  and  kicked,  it  was  energy 
wasted,  and  the  little  lady  gradually  learned  the 
great  moral  lesson  of  obedience.  On  the  other 
hand,  she  found  that  docility  and  diligent  applica- 
tion to  lessons  and  tasks  always  met  with  their  de- 


80    .  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

served  rewards.  Therefore  she  soon  fell  into  doing 
Avhat  was  told  her  and  not  doing  what  was  for- 
bidden her. 

To  this  training  was  added  the  stimulation  of 
great  examples.  She  worshiped  the  heroines  and 
heroes  of  the  stage.  When  she  was  arrayed  in  her 
home-made  finery,  her  lively  imagination  and  power 
of  mimicry  transformed  her  in  her  own  mind  into 
something  very  closely  akin,  if  not  identical,  with 
these  demigods.  Of  course,  she  expected  some  day 
to  become  one  of  them  really  and  truly.  "If  that 
is  so,"  said  her  teacher,  "then  you  must  be  like 
them  all  the  time.  You  must  be  patient,  courteous, 
kind,  noble  and  queenly,  just  as  those  people  are." 
And  Katie  tried  with  all  her  might. 

From  love  of  music  she  came  to  playing  music. 
At  first  she  played  by  ear.  Then  she  undertook 
regular  music  lessons  and  learned  a  new  meaning 
and  extracted  an  unlimited  pleasure  from  the  pe- 
culiar black-knobbed  signs  on  the  music  sheets.  It 
was  not  very  long  before  she  mastered  the  simplest 
music.  Then  her  attention  reached  out  to  the  other 
symbols  in  black  that  ran  between  the  notes  and 
from  which  her  teacher  taught  her  the  words  of 
songs.  Could  she  learn  those,  too?  Certainly. 
And  so  reading  began  and  went  on  rapidly.  Then 
the  reading  of  simple  plays  followed,  and  almost 
before  Katie  knew  it  she  was  ushered  into  another 
world  of  great  characters  in  fiction. 

AH  this  time,  the  other  activities  of  her  life  were 


MINDS   IN    STRAIGHT   JACKETS      81 

cared  for.  Her  exercises  grew  out  of  her  dancing. 
Once  the  pleasure  of  movement  was  tasted,  it  could 
1  not  be  confined  to  one  variety.  The  usual  chil- 
dren's exercises — jumping  the  rope,  running, 
swinging  clubs  and  dumb-bells — came  into  play. 
Health  and  strength  increased  aboundingly.  Games 
followed ;  then  playmates  came  in  and  took  part  and 
along  with  them  came  all  the  world  of  self-control 
and  unselfishness  and  the  awakening  of  friendship 
and  love.  Sewing  and  the  piano  practise  gave  first 
manual  lessons.  They  were  continued  in  dressing, 
washing,  eating  and  all  the  amenities  of  polite  life, 
all  of  them  inspired  by  the  ambition  to  become  like 
the  personages  of  the  stage  or  the  novel. 

From  musical  notes  and  letters  in  song  and 
drama,  Katie  passed  to  other  studies,  and  mastered 
them  fairly  well  for  one  so  long  retarded.  The 
weary  steps  she  took  in  a  few  years,  the  hours  of 
labor,  the  lapses  she  suffered  in  intellectual  and 
moral  training,  the  patience  required  by  her  teacher, 
I  shall  pass  over.  They  were  there  and  they  were 
discouraging  enough.  In  all  of  them  the  firm  and 
skilful  trainer  supplied  the  will  that  poor  Katie 
lacked  and  without  which  her  life  would  in  all 
probability  have  continued  enclosed  to  the  end  in 
the  psychic  prison  in  which  it  began.  In  about  three 
years  the  little  girl  who  at  nine  was  counted  an 
imbecile  had  developed  so  marvelously  that  she 
could  take  her  part  in  any  company  of  twelve-year- 
old  children,  and  could  comport  herself  with  the 


82  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

manners  of  a  proper  child  in  any  society.  She  was 
an  inveterate  and  earnest  reader,  possessed  a  com- 
paratively rich  and  varied  command  of  language 
and  an  expressed  ambition  "to  add  at  least  one  new 
word  to  her  vocabulary  every  day." 

Katie's  case  is  interesting  from  many  points  of 
view.  It  is  such  an  extreme  one  that  teachers  never 
expect  to  see  one  like  it  in  school,  and  parents  feel 
it  to  be  utterly  unthinkable  to  have  one  like  it  in 
their  home.  Yet  at  bottom,  Katie's  difficulty  might 
be  exemplified  in  milder  form  in  numberless  in- 
stances. Notice,  she  was  not  mentally  abnormal. 
She  was  not  dull,  nor  stupid,  nor  slow.  She  was 
not  a  "born  criminal,"  nor  a  moral  imbecile,  nor 
a  degenerate  fallen  from  higher  moral  planes.  She 
had  no  bad  family  history,  nor  any  diseases  in  her 
own  lifetime  which  left  indelible  marks.  Katie  was 
merely  the  victim  of  extreme  bad  management.  The 
core  of  all  her  later  troubles  lay  in  her  lack  of 
those  varied  interests  which  compel  ordinary  chil- 
dren to  educate  themselves.  All  her  evils  developed 
when  unskilled  adults,  without  a  study  of  her  con- 
dition, undertook  to  force  her  into  the  usual  molds 
of  training.  She  was  made  of  stubborn  metal, 
tough,  fine-grained,  high-tempered,  and  the  molds 
broke.  Then  came  a  seer  who  perceived  the  germ 
of  her  mental  life,  treated  Katie  as  if  she  was  a 
living  organism  and  a  human  being,  fitted  instruc- 
tion to  pupil,  saved  a  soul  from  mental  torture  and 
formed  a  noble  woman  out  of  a  potential  maniac. 


CHAPTER  V 

BAD  AND  BACKWARD 

BACKWARDNESS  and  badness  are  sometimes 
related  as  cause  to  effect.  A  boy  is  back- 
ward because  he  is  bad.  This  happens  in  school 
where  conduct  counts  so  much  for  advancement 
that  sometimes  amiable  feeble-minded  children  are 
promoted  from  grade  to  grade  with  praise  for  their 
splendid  behavior  and  for  their  evident  sincere  at- 
tempts to  study,  while  pupils  really  bright  are  held 
back  in  their  grades  and  counted  mentally  retarded 
because  they  are  unruly.  No  teacher,  of  course, 
deliberately  plans  such  anomalies  of  educational 
practise.  But  for  that  very  reason,  because  such 
unintended  results  sometimes  follow,  we  should 
study  the  matter.  The  following  case  illustrates 
some  of  the  evils  arising  from  treating  bad  bright 
boys  as  if  they  were  mentally  retarded. 

George  was  brought  to  the  clinic  by  his  mother 
because  his  school  said  he  was  a  backward  boy.  He 
did  not  look  it,  nor  did  he  in  his  appearance  live 
up  to  the  stories  told  about  him  and  the  confessions 
he  later  made.  It  was  a  curious  confusion  due  to 
opposite  view-points,  and  a  natural  confusion  of 

83 


84  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

opinions  that  was  presented  by  the  teachers  and 
his  mother.    But  first  let  us  have  a  look  at  the  boy. 

He  was  about  twelve  years  of  age;  well  dressed, 
clean,  red-cheeked,  slightly  freckled  through  his 
tanned  skin.  The  tan  argued  that  he  was  much  out- 
of-doors;  for  it  is  unusual,  even  in  summer,  for  a 
city  boy  to  secure  such  a  healthy  coat  of  brown. 
He  was  a  manly-looking  fellow,  strong  and  well, 
with  broad  shoulders,  a  quiet,  somewhat  suppressed 
manner  which  spoke  as  much  for  self-control  as  it 
did  for  discipline,  as  much  for  a  hidden  life  as  it 
did  training  in  manners.  In  his  own  history  there 
was  not  a  sign  of  abnormality.  Neither  was  there 
an  item  in  his  family  history  that  could  be  con- 
strued as  moral  or  mental  deficiency.  All  this  was 
borne  out  also  by  his  mother's  general  appearance 
and  by  her  evident  character  and  ability.  She  was 
a  widow  engaged  in  some  easy  and  lucrative  work 
befitting  her  capacity,  so  that  George  suffered 
neither  the  hardships  nor  the  privations  of  an  or- 
phaned boy,  except  that  his  mother  was  forced  to 
be  away  from  home  during  the  day,  and  he  lacked 
the  sympathetic  understanding  and  the  guidance  of 
a  father  when  he  needed  them  most. 

The  history  of  his  schooling  was  altogether  of 
a  different  color.  At  six  years  of  age  George  had 
started  to  the  regular  public  school  in  a  large  eastern 
city.  From  the  beginning  he  did  well  and  for  three 
years  gave  absolutely  no  trouble,  learning  his  lessons 
like  a  worthy  pupil,  securing  good  grades  and  be- 


BAD   AND   BACKWARD  85 

having  like  a  little  gentleman.  Then  for  some  un- 
explained reason,  in  one  of  those  educational  re- 
arrangements common  to  growing  neighborhoods, 
George  found  himself  compelled  to  go  to  another 
public  school  in  quite  another  neighborhood.  It 
was  not  such  a  great  distance  from  his  home,  but 
it  was  in  a  neighborhood  infinitely  removed  from 
his  in  social  conditions.  From  boys  of  his  own 
class  he  passed  to  boys  of  an  altogether  different 
class:  children  from  the  slums,  whites  and  blacks, 
whose  homes  and  no-account  parents  made  them 
what  they  were,  objects  of  pity  rather  than  objects 
of  censure,  but  little  demons,  nevertheless,  potent 
with  influences  and  powers  to  make  others  like 
themselves. 

The  new  boy  had  his  troubles  from  the  first. 
He  was  a  stranger  and  therefore  a  suspicious  char- 
acter. After  the  first  flush  of  antagonism  because 
of  his  strangeness  had  worn  off  his  evident  social 
superiority,  his  good-breeding  and  his  scholarship, 
made  him  a  natural  enemy  to  the  hoodlum  element. 
Like  all  strange  boys  in  that  school  he  had  to  fight 
his  way.  That  he  could  do  with  right  good  gusto. 
George  was  no  weakling;  he  was  not  a  coward,  nor 
was  he  sickly,  nor  had  he  any  squeamish  ethical 
ideas  that  unfitted  him  for  the  robustious  world  of 
boys  into  which  he  had  been  thrown.  His  training 
on  the  streets  had  not  refined  away  any  of  his 
natural  Irish  belligerency,  nor  imbued  him  with  any 
notions  of  passive  resistance.     Likewise  he  had  a 


86  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

just  estimate  of  his  superior  social  position  and 
made  no  concealment  of  the  fact  that  he  considered 
his  removal  from  the  other  school  unjust  and  his 
association  with  these  new  companions  a  degrada- 
tion. Naturally  he  had  to  fight  for  such  ideals; 
and  fight  he  did  with  the  necessary  frequency  and 
the  necessary  vigor.  As  a  result  he  both  gained 
and  lost.  He  made  himself  a  solid  place  in  the  boy- 
world  where  he  was  respected  and  where  he  ruled 
with  a  good-natured  despotism.  For  it  must  be 
said  to  his  credit  that  he  never  picked  a  quarrel  and 
he  never  fought  unless  he  thought  he  had  to  do  so 
for  some  principle,  or  for  some  end  to  be  gained. 
Of  course,  the  tales  of  his  fighting  reached  the 
teachers.  He  was  reprimanded  and  punished.  He 
went  through  all  the  formalities  to  which  a  boy  is 
subjected  by  a  machine  that  attempts  to  force  the 
standards  of  civilized  and  cultured  life  upon  a  bar- 
barian society.  His  teachers  lectured  him  on  the 
ungentlemanliness  of  fighting  with  bad  boys,  ap- 
pealed to  his  evident  superior  breeding,  besought 
him  in  his  mother's  name,  scolded,  kept  him  after 
school,  wrote  notes  to  his  mother,  gave  him  marks 
of  demerit,  cut  down  his  grades,  threatened  to  send 
him  to  the  school  for  incorrigibles,  and  finally,  in 
despair,  themselves  descended  to  his  plane,  and 
seizing  the  rod  of  superior  physical  prowess  pro- 
ceeded with  exactly  the  same  tactics  that  George 
found  he  had  been  compelled  to  pursue  on  the  play- 


BAD   AND   BACKWARD  87 

ground.  Through  it  all,  the  teachers  felt  doubly 
outraged  because  they  believed  that  the  boy  was 
bright  and  could  settle  down  and  study  in  peace 
and  quiet  if  he  only  would  do  it.  However,  his 
study  continued  to  suffer  and  his  reputation  for 
pugnacity  grew.  It  is  an  open  question  whether 
George  did  not  find  more  compensation  from  the 
knowledge  of  supremacy  in  his  own  world  than  he 
lost  from  the  feeling  of  failure  in  the  school-world. 
He  had  entered  the  first  stages  of  the  real  hoodlum. 
His  principal,  at  last  worn  out  with  attempts  to 
reform  George,  sent  him  to  a  school  for  the  in- 
corrigibles.  There  he  was  to  stay  until  he  worked 
his  way  out  by  a  system  of  credits  whereby  every 
day's  good  conduct  was  rewarded  with  a  ticket, 
thirty  of  which  released  the  young  prisoner  from 
his  ignominious  incarceration.  If  his  former  school 
was  a  school  of  pugnacity  the  second  was  infinitely 
worse.  Here  the  lowest  boys  of  many  neighbor- 
hoods were  corralled;  pugnacity  was  concentrated; 
truancy  was  incarnated  and  walked  abroad  in  visible 
heroes  who  would  *'bag''  school  in  the  face  of  cer- 
tain death;  burglars  in  embryo,  pickpockets  in  the 
tutelage,  gamblers  in  reality,  braggadocios  in  petty 
criminality,  heroes  of  juvenile  courts  and  houses 
of  detention,  stalked  about  like  kings  with  their 
followers,  many  of  whom  were  feeble-minded  and 
all  of  whom  were  in  that  impressionable  and  sug- 
gestible stage  where  daredevil  misdemeanors  lent 


88  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

to  the  perpetrator  a  glamour  beside  which  the  halo 
of  a  saint  flickered  and  went  out  like  a  candle  in  the 
Valley  of  Death. 

So  at  least  it  looked  to  George  and  the  other 
boys,  according  to  his  story  to  the  clinic  staff.  For- 
tunately George  was  too  bright  and  too  well-bred 
to  be  caught  with  the  tinsel  of  cheap  viciousness 
and  the  showy  exhibition  of  vulgar  vainglory.  The 
whole  thing  bored  him.  All  he  wanted  was  to  be  let 
alone.  That  peace  was  impossible  to  be  had  ex- 
cept by  fighting  for  it.  ^*Why  didn't  you  work  your 
way  out  by  merits?''  George  was  asked.  "I  did 
try,"  he  answered  wearily,  "but  the  other  fellows 
wouldn't  leave  me  alone.  Once  I  got  twenty-nine 
tickets  and  then  I  had  to  lick  a  fellow  that  got 
fresh,  and  they  took  all  my  tickets  away  again." 

It  was  hard  for  the  clinic  staff  to  believe  that  this 
clean-cut  chap,  who  ought  by  all  odds  to  have  been 
a  good  scholar  in  a  regular  school,  had  been  kept 
in  a  place  like  that  for  causes  like  that  for  nearly 
two  years,  but  his  mother  corroborated  the  story 
and  later  it  was  found  to  be  true  by  the  clinic  social 
worker. 

The  opinion  of  George's  mother  varied  essen- 
tially from  the  lurid  reputation  he  had  acquired  at 
school.  She  insisted  that  he  was  a  good  boy;  that 
he  was  gentlemanly  in  his  conduct,  obedient  at 
home,  regular  in  his  habits  and  diligent  in  his  at- 
tempts to  get  his  lessons.  When  asked  how  he 
spent  his  evenings,  she  affirmed  that  he  usually  spent 


BAD   AND   BACKWARD  89 

them  at  home,  but  he  went  out  sometimes,  and  once 
a  week  with  her  permission,  attended  the  moving- 
picture  show.  All  his  troubles  at  school  she  blamed 
on  the  principal,  who,  she  averred,  had  taken  a 
violent  dislike  to  her  son,  and  had  maliciously  kept 
him  in  a  school  for  incorrigibles  for  a  period  be- 
yond all  justice  or  reason.  It  might  be  said  in 
passing  that  George  did  not  entirely  deserve  this 
angelic  opinion  of  his  mother  and  he  admitted  that 
he  frequently  slipped  out  at  night  and  got  into  the 
moving-picture  show  by  doing  odd  jobs  for  the 
manager.  I  believe,  too,  he  admitted  to  a  recently 
acquired  taste  for  cigarettes.  If  he  did  not  smoke 
and  swear  he  must  have  been  born  a  saint. 

Such  was  the  situation.  Undoubtedly  George 
was  not  retarded  because  of  any  mental  deficiency. 
His  trouble  was  badness ;  or,  to  be  more  correct  and 
specific, — fighting.  From  all  appearances  his  fight- 
ing was  forced  on  him  by  circumstances.  Like 
primitive  man,  he  knew  no  other  mode  of  settling 
his  difficulties  in  the  society  where  he  had  fallen 
through  no  fault  of  his  own.  When  this  conclusion 
was  reached,  friends  laid  the  matter  before  the 
superintendent  of  schools  who  cut  some  red  tape 
and  speedily  removed  George  to  his  old  school 
where  he  first  started.  There  George  settled  down 
again  to  study,  left  off  fighting  more  than  the  usual 
amount  necessary  to  boys  and  conducive  to  order 
in  their  world,  and  at  last  accounts  was  making  up 
lost  ground. 


90  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

A  Hopeless  Case. — Admit  it  we  must:  some 
children  are  born  bad  and  they  can  not  be  cured 
of  their  badness.  This  fact,  unbelievable  to  some 
people,  and  not  discerned  in  individual  cases  by 
others,  has  led  and  continues  to  lead  to  many  com- 
plications and  much  confusion  regarding  the  moral 
training  of  children.  Theories  are  laid  down  by 
traditions  or  by  inventors,  methods  are  elaborated 
to  fit  them,  and  all  comes  to  naught  because  the 
child  was  not  carefully  studied  and  his  true  condi- 
tion ascertained  before  any  effort  was  made  to  cure 
him.  Some  mental  defect  always  accompanies  true 
moral  imbecility.  With  the  clinics  for  children  well 
organized,  as  they  are  to-day,  guesswork  is  not  nec- 
essary. That  it  will  be  continued  for  some  time  to 
come  is  a  prophecy  in  line  with  all  history.  It 
takes  time  for  new  knowledge  to  escape  from  the 
confines  of  laboratories  and  to  penetrate  the  prac- 
tises of  the  crowd.  The  following  illustration 
shows  many  things;  chief  among  them  is  the  fact 
that  moral  imbecility  exists,  that  scientists  can  diag- 
nose it,  and  that  long  and  costly  experimentation 
brings  the  doubters  to  the  same  conclusion. 

Rose  was  a  girl  about  eleven  years  old  when  she 
came  to  a  clinic.  She  was  a  well- formed  beautiful 
child,  with  a  face  in  which  the  hint  of  voluptuous- 
ness was  chastened  into  cherubic  purity  by  the  in- 
nocence of  childhood;  with  eyes  that  were  full  and 
deep  as  the  sky  in  June,  and  as  untarnished  as  a 
violet  by  the  spring,  with  hair  that  fell  in  long 


BAD    AND    BACKWARD  91 

chestnut  curls,  crisp  and  shimmering  in  its  wealth 
and  health.  Her  teeth  were  large  and  white  and 
her  charming  smile  unveiled  them  frankly  with  an 
inviting  trust  and  wholesome  good-humor.  Her 
skin  was  clear  and  clean,  a  surprising  fact  consid- 
ering that  she  came  from  a  very  poor  family.  She 
suffered  from  adenoids,  enlarged  tonsils  and  a  slight 
defect  of  vision.  She  was  brought  to  a  clinic  be- 
cause she  was  expelled  from  school  for  general  mis- 
behavior. She  spent  her  time  while  away  from  school 
on  the  streets  and  in  the  alleys,  playing  and  fighting, 
stealing  rides  on  wagons  and  fleeing  the  police. 
Her  home  was  poor  in  all  its  aspects,  physical, 
mental  and  moral.  The  less  said  about  the  family 
the  better.  Sufficient  will  it  be  to  remark  that  while 
there  were  no  marked  mental  or  moral  abnormalities 
in  her  family,  all  of  her  immediate  relatives  were 
worthless  or  nearly  so.  There  were  some  positive 
immoralities,  but  they  were  of  the  weak  kind,  ar- 
guing for  no  character,  not  bad  character.  All  of 
her  relatives,  her  mother,  father,  sisters  and 
brothers,  might  have  been  summarized  in  that  most 
significant  southern  phrase,  "poor  white  trash."  To 
the  clinicist,  this  was  the  most  damaging  testimony 
in  the  whole  case. 

Rose  exhibited  a  similar  weakness  in  mental  ca- 
pacities. She  was  not  distinctly  feeble-minded,  but 
she  was  fearfully  retarded  for  no  reason  except  ir- 
regular attendance  at  school  and  her  inability  to 
learn  when  she  was  there.     She  was  twelve  years 


92  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

of  age  and  in  the  second  grade,  and  not  up  to  that 
grade  in  some  studies.  Poor  heredity  and  bad  en- 
vironment had  cooperated  all  through  her  life,  and 
before  her  life,  to  make  her  an  exceedingly  bad  and 
backward  child,  though  fair  and  beautiful  to  look 
upon.  The  impartial  clinicist  pronounced  his  verdict 
according  to  the  evidence,  that  it  was  useless  to  try 
to  keep  her  in  society,  and  advised  that  she  be  sent 
to  some  institution  where  she  would  be  protected 
from  herself  and  prevented  from  doing  the  damage 
to  society  that  she  w^ould  not  fail  to  do  if  she  were 
permitted  to  go  at  large.  However,  Rose  had  suc- 
ceeded by  her  charms  in  touching  the  heart  of  a  very 
splendid  young  woman  who  gave  herself  without 
stint  to  aiding  unfortunate  children  anywhere  and 
everywhere.  This  good-hearted  girl  deemed  the  re- 
sults of  the  examination  too  harsh  and  hard  and 
made  up  her  mind  to  give  Rose  another  chance. 

She  secured  the  child's  admission  to  an  institution 
for  children  in  the  country  where  Rose  for  the 
first  time  in  her  life  entered  a  healthy  and  pleasant 
home.  As  a  result  of  the  novelty,  her  conduct  for 
two  weeks  was  reported  as  good  in  every  way.  Then 
she  went  back  to  her  own  home  again.  Her  conduct 
soon  reverted  to  its  former  evil  state.  Her  play- 
ground was  the  street,  and  her  conduct  so  disorderly 
that  the  police  again  interfered  and  threatened  her 
with  arrest.  Her  friend  secured  her  a  boarding- 
place  in  the  country  where  her  actions  were  soon 
reported  to  be  unbearable.    Then  she  went  to  a  chil- 


BAD   AND    BACKWARD  93 

dren's  hospital  for  an  operation  and  treatment, 
whence,  as  soon  as  her  treatment  was  concluded,  she 
was  removed  by  request  because  of  her  badness. 
Her  friend,  still  stanch  in  her  efforts  to  save  so  beau- 
tiful a  child,  took  her  into  her  own  home.  But  it 
was  of  no  avail.  Kindness  went  for  naught;  it  was 
answered  by  impertinence,  disobedience,  blasphemy 
and  vileness.  Back  she  went  to  a  caretaker  in  a 
special  home.  For  five  weeks  she  stayed  there  and 
then  her  friend  took  her  for  a  vacation  to  the  sea- 
shore. There  she  was  ill  and  fairly  good  for  a 
while,  but  not  good  enough  to  show  any  real  de- 
velopment in  morality.  Her  benefactress  was  be- 
coming discouraged  and  tried  her  next  in  a  colony 
for  delinquent  children.  There  she  was  disobedient, 
quarrelsome,  used  improper  and  vile  language  and 
exhibited  a  marked  and  vicious  propensity  for  boys' 
society.  That  was  the  last  attempt  to  reform  her. 
The  doors  of  a  house  of  refuge  in  which  there  is 
practically  no  hope  closed  upon  her  and  she  is  there 
now.  Six  institutions,  five  doctors  and  a  host  of 
friends,  none  more  loyal  and  patient  to  be  found 
than  Rose's  benefactress,  had  tried  their  utmost 
for  a  year  and  a  half  and  had  not  made  the  slight- 
est progress  in  developing  a  moral  nature  in  the  girl. 
Her  immorality  was  due  to  heredity  and  environ- 
ment. Her  home  was  poor,  her  neighborhood  bad, 
the  effect  of  her  surroundings  augmented  by  phys- 
ical defects.  Although  attractive  in  personal  appear- 
ance and  promising  in  character,  she  was  devoid  of 


94  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

moral  sense,  and  impervious  to  elevating  surround- 
ings or  elevating  ideals.  This  brief  sketch  gives  but 
a  faint  idea  of  her  depravity,  her  vileness,  her  de- 
generate tastes,  her  familiarity  with  certain  crimes, 
her  versatility  in  blasphemous  language,  all  of  it 
springing  out  of  a  nature  that  sought  vice  with  the 
unchecked  determination  of  an  animal  following  its 
instincts.  Yet  she  was  as  beautiful  as  an  angel, 
as  sweet  as  a  little  child. 

A  Pseudo-Moral  Imbecile. — ^To  show,  how- 
ever, that  children  may  be  saved  who  exhibit  on  the 
surface  all  the  characteristics  and  worse  ones  than 
those  just  enumerated  in  Rose's  life,  let  me  give  a 
brief  resume  of  another  case  leading  to  an  alto- 
gether different  conclusion.  In  The  Psychological 
Clinic,  Miss  Catlin  gives  an  interesting  and  detailed 
account  of  her  experiences  with  a  girl  who  was  en- 
trusted to  her  care  for  about  two  years.  The  child's 
mother  died  in  childbirth  and  the  baby  was  thrown 
upon  the  care  of  nurses  and  others.  At  eight  she 
was  a  terror  to  all  who  knew  her.  Her  health,  un- 
dermined by  indulgences  of  many  kinds,  was  preca- 
rious, her  temper  frightful,  her  nature  soured  and 
warped,  her  resentment  at  interference  fierce  and 
lasting.  Her  face  wore  a  wolfish  aspect  that  made 
her  more  animal  than  human  in  appearance.  The 
family,  utterly  despairing  of  doing  anything  with 
her,  sent  her  to  a  special  trainer. 

There  for  two  years  she  was  compelled  to  lead  a 
physically  well-ordered,  hygienic  life,  with  the  re- 


BAD   AND   BACKWARD  95 

suit  that  her  health  improved  greatly  but  her  dispo- 
sition remained  about  the  same.  Her  teacher,  when 
handing  the  child  over  to  Miss  Catlin,  reported  that 
she  was  still  ungovernable,  that  she  was  absolutely 
wanting  in  "decency,  honesty,  truth;  was  cruel, 
sneaky,  filthy,"  and  concluded  with  the  firm  con- 
viction that  the  child  was  insane  and  should  be  ex- 
amined by  an  alienist.  In  spite  of  this  Miss  Catlin 
received  her  into  her  care  and  trained  her  for  two 
years. 

She  began  with  her  own  diagnosis  of  the  case. 
She  took  account  of  stock  and  reckoned  up  the 
moral  assets  and  liabilities  with  which  she  was  to 
begin  business.  She  found  that  all  the  evil  told  of 
the  child  was  true;  in  fact  that  half  had  not  been 
told.  To  all  her  other  evils  she  added  the  art  of  tor- 
menting people  out  of  their  wits.  She  knew  how 
because  she  possessed  a  bright  mind  sharpened  to 
a  keenness  almost  uncanny  by  her  ten  years  of  con-  , 
stant  warfare  against  her  enemies  whom  she  hated 
with  the  hatred  of  a  savage  and  whom  she  loved  to 
out-do  by  any  sort  of  cunning  and  to  hurt  by  any 
exquisite  torture.  Her  new  teacher  soon  discov- 
ered another  fault  which  she  immediately  set  down 
as  an  asset.  That  was  vanity  growing  out  of  an  all- 
pervading  egotism.  Her  one  real  streark  of  gold  was 
sympathy  which  Sarai,  let  us  call  her,  possessed  to 
a  marked  degree,  but  which  seemingly  had  never 
been  discovered  before  and  certainly  had  not  been 
developed.     This  quality  of  sympathy  determined 


96  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

the  teacher  in  her  choice  of  the  mode  of  training  to 
be  followed  with  this  problematical  child. 

Immediately  she  made  herself  a  chum  to  her 
charge,  adopting  even  the  same  kind  of  dress.  For 
a  month  both  ran  wild  on  an  isolated  farm.  During 
that  time  Miss  Catlin  made  herself  absolutely  in- 
dispensable to  her  pupil  so  that  even  if  she  were 
away  for  an  hour  the  girl  felt  it  keenly.  For  the 
first  two  weeks  the  little  demon  tried  by  every  dia- 
bolical art,  like  dropping  caterpillars  down  her 
teacher's  back,  jumping  at  her  from  corners,  and 
dangling  snakes  within  an  inch  from  her  nose,  to 
test  the  staying  powers  of  her  new  friend's  good  hu- 
mor. The  first  streak  of  dawn  in  the  otherwise  dark 
training  up  to  that  time,  came  when  the  teasing  grew 
so  unbearable  that  the  teacher  took  to  flight  and 
showed  by  unmistakable  signs,  not  the  anger  the 
little  girl  expected,  but  the  awful  hurt  her  friend 
was  suffering  through  her  misconduct.  She  tim- 
idly stole  up  to  her  teacher,  took  her  hand  and  whis- 
pered, "Sister,  do  you  feel  like  you  look?"  In  that 
moment  the  teacher  knew  that  her  method  was  right 
and  would  eventually  succeed. 

Every  morning  there  was  a  thought  for  the  day. 
Then  came  the  stage,  most  cleverly  brought  on, 
when  the  child  gave  her  word  for  stated  tasks  and 
never  broke  her  promise.  Then  the  promising  was 
generalized  and  she  was  asked  to  promise  always 
to  do  anything  she  was  told.  By  that  time  she  had 
learned  that  her  new  teacher  would  never  ask  her 


BAD   AND   BACKWARD  97 

to  do  anything  arbitrary.  Later  the  two  further 
qualifications  of  "promptness"  and  "cheerfulness'' 
were  added  and  the  lesson  of  obedience  was  com- 
pletely learned.  Cheerfulness  was  applied  to  more 
than  mere  obedience.  It  was'  to  be  carried  into 
everything,  even  to  the  loss  of  games  which  sorely 
tried  the  little  egotist's  vanity.  One  day  at  tennis, 
Miss  C.  dropped  her  racket  and  said,  "See  here,  Fm 
not  going  to  play  out  of  my  class.  I'm  a  sport! 
What  are  you?     Do  you  know  what  a  sport  is?" 

"I'm  not  sure,"  the  subdued  playmate  said. 

"Well,  it's  one  who  plays  fair,  and  is  a  good 
loser!    .    .    .    Are  you  a  sport?" 

"I  don't  think  I  was  born  one,"  was  the  honest 
reply,  "but  I  might  grow  to  be  one,  couldn't  I?" 
And  you  may  be  sure  she  received  assurances  con- 
cerning the  prepotency  of  human  will  over  heredity. 

The  thoughts  of  the  morning  gradually  grew 
from  ideals  for  a  day  to  purposes  for  life.  Her 
teacher  early  and  energetically  inculcated  the  notion 
that  everybody  without  exception  should  have  a 
work  in  the  world  and  do  it  with  a  right  good  will. 
The  kind  old  gentleman  will  never  know  what  dis- 
dain and  indignation  he  aroused  by  calling  the  girl 
who  looks  confidently  forward  to  earning  her  own 
living  a  "little  lady." 

Her  schooling  after  about  a  month  of  freedom 
began  with  one  hour's  study  a  day.  The  beginning 
was  as  sore  a  trial  as  her  moral  training.  Her 
knowledge  of  books,  and  almost  all  else,  was  prac- 


98  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

tically  nothing.  Yet  she  had  the  supremest  opin- 
ion of  her  own  intellectual  attainments.  She  knew 
everything  and  resented  warmly  any  imputation  to 
the  contrary.  Some  of  her  vagaries  were  ludicrous. 
When  she  was  given  "there"  to  write  and  wrote  it, 
and  immediately  following  that  was  given  "then," 
she  quite  economically  wrote  "hen"  underneath  it, 
asserting,  and  quite  rightly  as  far  as  that  fragmen- 
tary situation  went,  that  one  "t"  could  stand  for 
both.  None  but  a  bright  child  would  have  thought 
of  that.  In  such  instances  nothing  but  the  threat 
of  her  teacher  to  leave  her  would  compel  the  neces- 
sary routine.  With  these  few  exceptions  her  lessons 
went  on  rapidly.  She  apparently  needed  no  special 
kind  of  instruction  for  her  mind  was  normal,  but 
neglected.  At  the  end  of  four  months  she  went  to 
a  private  school  where  she  continued  without  diffi- 
culty for  eight  months. 

At  ten  years  she  was  a  suspected  moral  imbecile 
with  maniacal  tendencies,  cruel,  indecent,  dishonest, 
deceitful,  tricky,  filthy,  incapable  of  living  with  nor- 
mal people  or  mixing  with  ordinary  children,  a  crea- 
ture despised  and  apparently  doomed  to  a  life  of 
horror;  at  twelve  she  was  a  well-bred  little  lady, 
"kindly,  lovable,  thoughtful,  earnest,  loyal,"  in 
school  learning  rapidly,  playing  with  other  children, 
sincerely  ambitious  to  make  her  life  useful  and  no- 
ble in  the  fullest  degree.  The  first  state,  contrary 
to  the  opinion  of  her  first  teacher,  was  not  due  to 
mental  defect  nor  to  ungovernable  passion  within 


BAD   AND   BACKWARD  99 

the  child  herself  but  to  misdirected  energies.  The 
new  state  was  brought  about  by  the  simple  but  la- 
borious direction  of  the  same  fundamental  energies 
into  new  and  useful  channels. 

Laziness. — One  of  the  commonest  charges 
brought  against  backward  children  when  the  back- 
wardness is  so  mild  that  it  does  not  demand  serious 
investigation,  is  the  charge  of  laziness.  It  is  an 
easy  mode  of  explaining  hard  things.  Besides,  the 
backward  child  exhibits  so  many  symptoms  of  lazi- 
ness. In  fact,  a  lazy  boy  and  a  ''truly  backward" 
boy,  if  they  are  not  suffering  from  precisely  the 
same  fundamental  pathological  conditions,  certainly 
act  as  if  they  were.  But  it  is  the  traditional  method 
with  children  to  declare  that  they  are  born  with  de- 
pravity in  them  and  their  worth  of  character  comes 
largely,  if  not  wholly,  from  training.  However, 
science  in  its  advances  encroaches  more  and  more 
not  only  upon  the  realms  of  superstition  but  also 
upon  the  empires  of  tradition.  Many  hoary-headed 
opinions  concerning  children,  when  examined  im- 
partially, melt  away  like  snow  under  the  April  sun. 
One  of  these  is  the  traditional  notion  that  because 
they  do  not  like  work  or  study,  healthy,  outdoor, 
sun-loving,  young  barbarians  are  lazy.  The  fact 
that  the  accusation  rests  chiefly  against  boys  and 
not  girls  suggests  some  ground  for  suspicion  that  it 
is  unjust. 

Modern  child-study  has  done  much  to  explode  the 
theory  of  '*just  pure  laziness''  as  a  cause  for  a  boy's 


100  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

so-called  idleness.  The  youthful,  good-for-nothing, 
rat-catching  Darwin,  who  later  was  amazed  at»  his 
own  industry  displayed  in  reading  whole  masses  of 
biological  literature;  a  boy  called  'Tat,"  who  al- 
ternated fits  of  extremest  laziness  with  spells  of 
hunting  without  which  the  orator  of  the  Revolution 
might  never  have  proclaimed  to  the  centuries  ''Give 
me  liberty  or  give  me  death";  and  a  host  ol others 
have  done  much  to  dispel  the  prophecy  that  "lazy" 
boys  are  sure  to  fail.  The  lifelong  sufferings  of 
Horace  Mann,  due  largely  to  his  work-laden  boy- 
hood, is  a  protest  against  adult-defined  diligence  as 
the  proper  virtue  for  children.  Added  to  these 
admonitions  comes  Doctor  Hutchison  with  his  half- 
jocular  toxin-theory  of  work  and  his  warning 
against  infection  by  the  deadly  habit  of  industry,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  hook-worm  with  its  genuine 
infection  of  laziness  on  the  other.  Out  of  this  med- 
ley of  theories  and  babel  of  new  voices,  for  every 
child  trainer  must  come  a  revision  of  doctrine  con- 
cerning the  old  simple  formula  of  "He  is  lazy." 

Possibly  laziness  in  children  really  exists.  If  it 
does  and  is  the  cause  of  some  pupils'  poor  progress 
in  school,  possibly  the  direct  method  of  the  father 
who  gave  his  two  boys  a  sound  beating  because 
their  monthly  grades  were  low,  may  be  effective  for 
curing  the  low  grades.  The  method  has  in  its  fa- 
vor at  least  the  simplicity  of  brutality.  If,  how- 
ever, it  should  turn  out  that  all  children  called  lazy 
are  in  reality  suffering  from  perfectly  definite  but 


BAD   AND.   EA.CKWAkDt  iOl 

as  yet  only  partially  known  pathological  conditions, 
punijphment  would  appear  to  be  as  barbarous  as 
beating  a  sick  savage  in  order  to  expel  the  evil 
spirit  causing  the  disease;  and  if,  as  is  now  gen- 
erally believed,  a  very  large  majority  of  cases  of  so- 
called  laziness  have  their  distinct  causes,  it  would 
seem  to  be  only  rudimentary  justice  to  study 
each  case  carefully  in  order  to  discover  the  cause. 
Finally*  so-called  laziness  may  turn  out  to  be  a 
man's  salvation. 

A  couple  of  boys  lived  on  a  farm  where  both  were 
compelled  to  work  hard  to  force  a  living  for  the 
family  out  of  the  unwilling  soil.  One  boy  took  to 
the  work  willingly.  He  did  his  chores,  "plowed  and 
sowed,  bought  and  sold''  as  his  forefathers  had  done 
with  never  a  vision  beyond  the  mechanical  order  of 
the  day.  The  other  hated  the  farm  work,  did  as 
little  as  he  could,  would  walk  miles  to  borrow  a  book 
and  then  would  crawl  off  in  the  haymow  or  some 
other  place  and  pore  over  it  all  day.  He  was  slow, 
inactive,  dilatory  in  all  manual  occupations  and  re- 
ceived early  the  opprobrious  title  of  "lazy  bones." 
At  the  first  opportunity  he  left  the  farm  and  went 
into  the  city,  secured  an  office  position  in  a  business 
corporation  and  is  to-day  an  influential  officer  in  that 
organization.  His  "diligent"  brother  remained  on 
the  farm,  "diligently"  plied  his  trade  with  dimin- 
ishing success,  but  continual  labor,  till  the  foreclo- 
sure of  a  mortgage  threatened  to  alienate  the  home- 
stead from  the  family  and  it  was  saved  only  by  the 


102  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

"lazy''  brother,  who  bought  it  in  and  now  hires  his 
"diligent"  brother  to  farm  it  for  him. 

Such  an  instance  does  not  prove  that  laziness  does 
not  exist,  but  it  does  go  to  show  that  laziness  should 
be  more  accurately  defined  and  each  suspected  case 
carefully  diagnosed  before  summary  action  is  taken. 
A  period  comes  in  many  a  high-school  boy's  life 
when  rapid  physical  growth  saps  his  energies ;  when 
disgust  for  old  things  begets  tastes  for  new  things ; 
when  restlessness  drives  and  doubt  guides,  and  the 
whole  life  eddies,  then  stands  still  and  stagnates.  Such 
a  boy  often  falls  behind  in  study,  is  charged  with 
gross  laziness,  and  sometimes  is  driven  by  extreme 
measures  into  acts  ruinous  to  his  whole  life.  For 
the  lazy  boy,  young  or  old,  I  would  make  a  plea  for 
the  most  discriminating  study  and  the  most  patient 
treatment.  I  have  heard  a  successful  man  in  m.id- 
dle  life  devoutly  thank  God  for  the  profound  lazi- 
ness of  his  youth  because  it  permitted  the  incubation 
of  purposes  that  changed  the  direction  of  his  whole 
career. 

All  of  us  know  the  evil  effects  of  truancy  on 
school  progress.  Few  of  us  know  infallibly  how  to 
cure  it.  Some  of  us  believe  that  truants  are  bom 
and  truants  are  made.  The  former  truants  must 
have  their  fling  for  a  time  at  least ;  must  learn  the 
bitter  truth  little  Hugh  Idle  learned  who  ran  away 
from  Mr.  Toil,  his  hated  schoolmaster,  fell  in  with 
a  most  congenial  traveler  along  the  road,  stopped 
with  him  to  admire  one  interesting  activity  after 


BAD   AND   BACKWARD  103 

I  another  always  to  be  frightened  half  out  of  his  wits 
by  seeing  one  of  Mr.  Toil's  everlasting  brothers  en- 
ergetically bossing  the  job.  Night  came  at  last, 
and  poor  Hugh  turned  to  his  fellow-traveler  with 
the  tearful  question,  "Is  there  nothing  but  Toil  in 
the  world  ?*'  to  discover  to  his  utter  dismay  that  he 
had  been  in  the  company  of  Toil  all  day  long.  That 
is  one  of  the  fables  in  our  school  readers,  one  of  the 
lessons  we  do  not  learn  while  young,  but  -do  learn 
when  we  are  older,  by  experience  and  only  by  ex- 
perience, and  then  forget  that  lesson  the  moment 
we  ourselves  begin  to  deal  with  the  faults  of  chil- 
dren. Verily,  I  do  believe  that  born-truants  must 
have  the  truancy  taken  out  of  them  by  the  long  and 
dusty  road,  by  the  hardships  of  ignorance,  by  the 
labor  inevitably  involved  in  fleeing  from  toil.  The 
wise  rich  father  sends  his  truant  son  on  a  long 
voyage  with  one  of  his  captains;  or  his  son  falls 
overboard,  as  Kipling's  hero  did,  and  tastes  the  bit- 
terness of  ignorance  upon  a  fishing-smack.  Poor 
men's  sons  can  not  always  do  that  and  sometimes 
they  end  tragically  because  they  can  not,  as  the 
sequel  to  the  following  story  will  show. 

A  Truant  Made. — When  I  first  saw  Ikey  he 
was  in  a  special  summer  school,  and  I  did  not  won- 
der that  a  teacher  had  taken  the  trouble  to  travel 
half-way  across  the  city  to  warn  the  lady  in  charge 
against  the  little  rogue.  She  described  his  ignor- 
ance, his  stupidity,  his  unruliness,  his  truancy,  his 
deceit  fulness,  his  constant  aggravation  of  his  men- 


104  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

tal  ills  by  most  persistent  moral  turpitude.  She,  for 
one,  was  convinced  that  he  was  a  moral  degenerate 
and  mentally  unsound,  and  that  further  efforts  on 
his  behalf  would  be  worse  than  useless  because  they 
would  do  no  good  to  Ikey  and  he  would  do  untold 
harm  to  the  other  summer-school  pupils. 

And  Ikey  looked  it.  He  was  undersized  in  body 
and  limb ;  with  a  queer,  little,  wizened  face,  scarred 
by  old  burns  that  affected  one  eye  and  gave  an 
odd  and  impish  quirk  to  his  grin.  His  hair  was  cut 
a  la  Pompadour,  and  stood  up  over  his  low  fore- 
head like  the  spines  of  a  hedgehog.  His  clothes  be- 
tokened his  lowly  condition ;  they  were  ragged  and 
dirty ;  his  shoes,  old  button-shoes,  were  run  down  at 
the  heel,  full  of  holes  and  half  the  buttons  were 
gone.  He  was  a  typical  slum  child,  a  "wharf-rat," 
with  all  the  cunning  of  the  species  written  in  every 
line  of  his  face,  every  thread  of  his  clothes,  in  the 
ready  poise  and  in  every  startled,  scuttling  move- 
ment of  his  body.  His  beady  eyes  glistened  and 
danced,  a  flat  denial  to  the  charge  of  stupidity.  The 
tentative,  twisted  uncovering  of  his  crooked  teeth 
offered  either  enmity  or  friendship,  and  accord- 
ing to  the  exigencies  of  the  occasion,  might  turn 
into  a  snarl  or  a  smile.  One  could  not  associate  a 
loud,  hearty  laugh  with  Ikey.  A  silent  series  of 
chuckles  is  as  much  as  one  could  expect  under  the 
most  mirthful  circumstances. 

Into  his  home  and  schooling  we  need  not  go.  Both 
can  better  be  imagined  than  described.     We  can 


BAD   AND   BACKWARD  105 

begin  our  admiration  for  Ikey  by  noting  that  neither 
home  nor  school  had  broken  his  spring-steel  spirit, 
though  between  them  they  had  put  kinks  in  it.  For- 
tunately for  the  ^vaif  of  a  city's  wreckage,  he  had 
fallen  at  last  into  the  hands  of  Miss  F.,  the  same 
teacher  who  dealt^with  Joe  described  in  Chapter  I. 
She  had  a  habit  of  looking  through  the  outside  of 
teachers  and  boys  and  things,  and  so  after  glancing 
at  the  hat  of  the  teacher  who  pursued  Ikey  across 
the  city,  she  courteously  dismissed  the  prophet  and 
the  prophecy  of  evil  and  turned  to  the  boy.  She 
saw  all  I  have  described,  and  likely  she  saw  more. 
Anyhow,  from  Ikey's  facial  contortions  emerged 
a  confessed  smile  and  his  schooling  began. 

And  now  when  our  story  should  reach  its  climax 
of  interest  in  the  pedagogical  struggle  that  ought 
to  follow,  we  really  have  little  to  say.  The  battle 
was  all  won  when  this  kind  of  a  special  class  w^as  or- 
ganized and  a  teacher  like  Miss  F.  was  born.  The 
very  novelty  held  the  truant  for  about  a  week.  It 
was  all  so  strange.  Class  began  with  all  the  fifteen 
pupils  arranged  about  the  teacher  as  they  do  in  a 
kindergarten,  and  then  they  all  told  what  they 
wanted  to  do  during  the  day  and  how  they  would 
do  it.  After  that  each  went  to  the  board  and  wrote 
what  he  would  do;  then  he  read  it  and  had  it  cor- 
rected; then  he  went  and  did  it.  The  "it''  consisted 
of  something  different  for  each  child  and  included 
manual  work  of  all  kinds;  reading,  writing,  arith- 
metic, games,  a  lunch  with  ice-cream,  a  nap,  a  swim. 


106  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

a  walk  in  the  park,  and  a  lingering  farewell  at  four 
o'clock.  No  wonder  a  boy  like  poor  street-hardened 
Ikey  counted  it  all  a  paradise,  never  missed  a  day, 
rain  or  shine,  though  he  walked  six  miles  a  day,  and 
at  the  end  of  the  summer  came  to  the  principal's  of- 
fice and  begged  to  be  permitted  to  come  back  to  that 
school  next  year.  He  studied,  too,  and  did  well  for 
him,  considering  his  previous  disadvantages.  He 
certainly  was  not  an  imbecile,  neither  a  degenerate, 
neither  an  incorrigible,  but  just  a  little  cobble-stone, 
kicked  loose  from  the  streets  where  travel  had  worn 
him  hard  and  smooth.  At  the  end  of  six  weeks  the 
great  city  opened  its  maw  and  swallowed  him  again, 
and  I  have  not  seen  him  since.  Often  I  have  wanted 
to  hear  how  he  turned  out  and  have  hoped  against 
hope  that  he  did  well.  At  least,  it  was  demon- 
strated that  he  was  a  truant  made  and  not  a  truant 
born. 

A  Truant  Born. — Bert  was  a  truant  born.  At 
thirteen  he  bore  about  with  him  the  air  of  a  rover 
and  the  ennui  of  a  man  of  the  world.  I  met  him 
in  the  same  summer-school  with  Ikey.  They  were 
altogether  different.  Bert  was  large,  well-formed, 
easy-mannered,  hated  to  be  in  a  class  with  "kids" 
and  boarded  at  a  place  where  some  of  them  "cried 
at  night  to  go  home !"  That  to  him  was  the  nether- 
most depth  of  imbecile  puerility.  He  never  wanted 
to  go  home.  In  fact,  for  several  years  he  had  been 
using  every  effort  to  get  away  from  home  to  go  west 
and  lead  a  wild  untrammeled  life  on  a  ranch.    He^ 


BAD    AND    BACKWARD  107 

had  started  on  his  free-life  career  via  truancy,  but 
it  had  ended  so  far  rather  humiliatingly.  He  had 
been  sent  to  a  truant  school,  been  in  the  juvenile 
court,  in  the  detention  house,  on  probation,  in  a 
protectory,  and  between  times,  frequently  in  the 
hands  of  the  police.  Through  it  all  his  study  nat- 
urally suffered,  and  at  thirteen  he  was  having  a  new 
trial  in  a  summer  class  for  backward  children. 
There  he  was  making  a  good  impression  by  his  lazy 
smile,  his  drawling  tones,  his  ready  ability  and  un- 
failing politeness.  The  matron  with  whom  he 
boarded  said  he  had  a  "good  face"  and  was  the 
most  "gentlemanly  boy  she  ever  saw."  When  he 
obligingly  offered  to  take  a  ten-dollar  check  to  the 
store  and  get  it  cashed  for  her  she  readily  signed 
it  and  telephoned  the  store  to  give  him  the  money. 
When  Bert  was  next  heard  of  he  was  in  a  sol- 
diers' camp  in  another  state.  He  had  taken  the  ten 
dollars,  equipped  himself  with  a  brand  new  khaki 
uniform,  taken  a  train,  passed  through  the  largest 
city  in  America,  changed  from  train  to  boat,  from 
boat  to  trolley-car,  thence  to  train  again,  with  the 
unerring  scent  of  a  pointer-dog  winding  a  covey  of 
partridges,  and  arrived  at  the  soldiers'  camp  only 
to  find  his  expected  friend  was  not  there.  Nothing 
abashed,  he  soon  made  friends,  was  boarded  and 
petted,  and  finally  wrote  a  post-card  to  hfe  father  ad- 
monishing him  not  to  worry.  Before  the  police 
came  he  was  on  his  way  home,  and  arrived  in  his 
native  city  with  twenty-five  cents,  with  which,  like 


108  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

a  true  man  of  the  world,  he  took  one  last  fling  at  an 
amusement  park.  Then  he  reported  at  the  police 
station  that  he  was  a  lost  boy  and  "wouldn't  they 
take  him  home?"  Which  they  did  in  the  patrol- 
wagon,  and  nothing  was  lacking  in  Bert's  arrival 
save  a  band  playing  "See,  the  Conquering  Hero 
Comes." 

Poor  Bert!  That  was  about  his  last  escapade. 
All  the  threats  and  punishments  could  not  cure  his 
craving  for  the  West.  His  parents  thought  they 
could  cure  it,  or,  to  be  more  accurate,  they  did  not 
think  at  all,  and  following  in  their  poor  blind  way 
the  traditions  of  society,  attempted  by  paternal  au- 
thority and  organized  social  machinery  to  suppress 
the  vagrancy  of  their  unguided  boy.  But  in  spite 
of  it  all,  Bert  slipped  through  the  meshes,  took  a 
freight-train  for  his  promised  land,  fell  under  the 
wheels  and  his  restless  spirit  free  forever,  winged 
away  on  its  last  long  journey. 

In  the  face  of  such  tragedy,  pedagogy  feels  the 
propriety  of  silent  reflection.  Yet  for  the  sake  of 
other  parents  with  other  boys,  I  must  add  my  firm 
conviction  that  Bert  might  have  been  saved  and 
cured  from  his  truancy.  Purposefully,  I  have 
brought  together  Ikey  and  Bert  in  order  to  show 
from  the  first  how  the  second  might  have  been 
helped,  and  to  show  from  the  second  how  serious  it 
is  to  attempt  to  suppress  the  vagrant  impulses  of 
boys  when  they  are  manifested  so  persistently  and 
so  strenuously.    I  believe  that  if  Bert's  parents  had 


BAD   AND   BACKWARD  109 

arranged  for  him  to  go  west  and  by  the  toil  and 
sweat  of  actual  cowboy  life,  to  work  out  of  his  sys- 
tem the  romance  and  glamour  surrounding  his  no- 
tion of  ranch  life,  he  would  have  come  to  himself 
and  would  have  returned  a  chastened  and  wiser 
youth.  He  had  brains  and  ability,  he  was  not  irra- 
tionally bad,  he  was  not  a  general  vagrant  nor 
merely  an  aimless  truant,  but  he  was  a  boy  with  a 
fixed  obsession,  and  the  lure  of  that  obsession  led 
him  to  his  death.  If  we  dare  generalize  from  these 
cases,  and  others  like  them,  I  would  say  that  tru- 
ancy is  nearly  always  due  to  environment,  and  if 
taken  in  time,  can  be  cured  by  the  proper  modifica- 
tion of  the  school  conditions. 


CHAPTER  VI 

RETARDATION  DU£  TO  ENVIRONMENT 

THE  causes  of  mental  retardation  are  resident 
either  within  the  child  himself  or  outside  of 
him.  Since  the  retardation  is  so  often  discovered 
in  school  where  the  first  exact  methods  of  classify- 
ing children  are  applied,  it  frequently  happens  that 
the  causes  for  the  retardation  are  looked  for  in  the 
school.  Parents  say  the  curriculum  is  too  crowded 
or  too  difficult,  the  lessons  too  long,  the  text-books 
incomprehensible,  the  teacher  unfit,  the  method  of 
teaching  outworn  or  experimental.  It  is  seldom 
that  the  school-administrator  has  a  chance  to  make 
an  adequate  reply  and  so  the  charges  stand. 

The  fact  is  that  causes  for  retardation  very  often 
lie  in  the  child's  home,  or  in  his  neighborhood,  or 
in  the  kinds  of  companions  he  keeps.  Sometimes 
the  causes  are  physical;  sometimes  they  are  due  to 
the  ideals  he  imbibes. 

Because  of  their  exceeding  triviality,  the  causes 
are  frequently  overlooked.  So  serious  does  peda- 
gogical retardation  appear  to  the  average  school- 
administrator  that  he  is  misled  into  thinking  that  a 
serious  cause  must  surely  lie  at  the  bottom  of  so 

110 


ENVIRONMENT  111 

serious  a  condition.  He  therefore  looks  for  deep- 
seated  defects  in  the  pupil's  physical  or  mental  being, 
or  for  sinister  influences  in  his  surroundings,  when, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  frequently  the  cause  is  so  trivial 
and  superficial  that  he  overlooks  it.  Causes  that 
are  ludicrous  except  for  the  gravity  of  their  effect, 
and  too  ridiculous  to  be  set  down  except  for  their 
frequency,  will  readily  occur  to  any  seasoned 
teacher.  Partly  to  warn  teachers,  in  cases  of  re- 
tardation, to  look  first  for  the  obvious,  and  partly 
to  warn  parents  about  the  effects  of  their  careless 
and  thoughtless  criticisms  of  school  on  their  chil- 
dren, I  will  set  down  a  few  cases  that  have  come 
under  my  notice. 

A  boy  ten  years  old  fell  behind  his  classes  so  per- 
sistently that  the  principal  of  his  school,  after  look- 
mg  in  vain  for  causes  adequate  to  account  for  his 
seeming  utter  indifference  to  study,  and  after  ex- 
hausting every  pedagogical  device  to  interest  him  in 
things  mundane,  sent  him  to  a  clinic.  There  a  care- 
ful examination  was  made,  and  though  the  boy  was 
found  to  be  but  of  ordinary  mentality,  he  seemed 
to  possess  enough  mind  to  succeed  moderately  if 
he  would  only  apply  himself.  There  were  no  rad- 
ical physical  defects  in  the  way  of  this,  either;  no 
cause  appeared  but  his  sublime  indifference  to  study 
or  to  any  other  preparation  for  life.  The  reason  for 
this  attitude  was  discovered  when  he  was  asked 
what  he  was  going  to  be  when  he  grew  up  and 
blandly  answered,  '^Nothing;  for  the  world  is  com- 


112  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

ing  to  an  end  in  1917,  and  there  isn't  any  use  of  get- 
ting ready  to  do  anything."  Then  it  transpired 
that  the  boy  belonged  to  a  family  who  held  a  mil- 
lennium doctrine  that  looked  confidently  for  the 
near  destruction  of  this  world.  The  boy  heard  it,  be- 
lieved it,  applied  it  literally  to  his  own  case  and  re- 
fused to  make  any  preparation  whatever  for  his 
future  here.  He  knew  that  the  sect  to  which  his 
parents  belonged  was  misunderstood  and  criticized, 
and  hence  he  kept  his  doctrines  to  himself  until  the 
seriousness  of  his  retardation  led  him  to  a  clinic 
where  he  blurted  out  his  confession.  Needless  to 
say,  his  parents  had  had  no  intention  of  permitting 
their  theological  doctrines  to  make  such  an  impres- 
sion upon  their  son  and  took  immediate  steps  to 
correct  it. 

Another  case  is  so  utterly  ridiculous  that  only  its 
cogency  as  an  illustration  of  how  almost  unthinkably 
trivial  causes  will  affect  children's  attitude  toward 
studies,  and  its  actual  occurrence  in  a  large  city  of 
the  Middle  West  justifies  its  restatement.  A  little 
girl,  apparently  from  a  very  poor  and  very  ignorant 
foreign  family,  did  well  in  all  her  studies  except 
geography.  Finally,  in  despair,  the  teacher  sent  for 
Mary's  mother,  who  duly  appeared,  an  uncultured 
ignorant  woman,  belligerent  and  not  over-refined  in 
her  manner  or  ideals  of  life./  She  heard  the  teach- 
er's complaint  to  the  end  and  then  almost  dazed  that 
good  spinster-lady  by  remarking  with  the  utmost 
complacency  that  geography  was  patently  utterly  f u- 


ENVIRONMENT  113 

tile,  since  she  herself  without  it  had  contrived  to  con- 
summate a  woman's  supreme  ambition  in  life  by  se- 
curing a  husband,  while  the  teacher,  with  it,  had 
failed !/  No  wonder  that  Mary  despised  geography ! 
It  is  a  compliment  to  the  versatility  of  the  American 
school-teacher  to  add  that  this  one  quickly  recov- 
ered herself,  led  Mary's  mother  into  further  con- 
versation, accepted  an  invitation  to  visit  their  home 
and  meet  the  prize  husband,  who  turned  out  to  be 
very  anxious  for  his  daughter  to  become  a  school- 
teacher because  she  would  earn  a  large  salary.  With 
that  as  her  cue,  the  teacher  led  Mary  and  her  father 
to  see  the  more  certain  and  more  immediate  value 
of  geography  as  an  asset  to  teaching,  while  she 
pleased  the  mother  by  assuring  her  that  it  was  not 
an  obstacle  to  the  ultimate  vocation  of  matrimony. 
Other  instances,  some  more  serious  and  some 
more  ridiculous,  illustrating  the  undesirable  effects 
of  home  ideals  on  pupil's  progress  in  school  will 
readily  come  to  mind.  The  American  boy's  hope- 
lessness in  grammar  caused  by  his  father's  grandiose 
assertion  that  a  free-born  American  did  not  have 
to  be  taught  his  native  tongue;  the  failure  of  an- 
other in  drawing  because  his  commercial  parents 
despised  "artists";  the  collapse  of  a  girl  under  a 
certain  teacher  because  the  girl's  mother  and  the 
teacher  crossed  swords  in  some  social  affair;  all 
these  could  be  developed  at  length  to  teach  the  same 
lesson  of  home  influences  upon  the  backwardness  of 
some  pupils  in  certain  or  all  of  their  studies. 


114  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

Home  influences  are  not  limited  to  inculcation  of 
ideas.  Some  of  them  are  physical,  definite  in  their 
nature,  and  serious  in  their  effects.  The  common- 
est of  these  causes  are  sanitary  and  nutritional. 
What  and  how  a  child  eats;  how  many  hours,  and 
under  what  conditions  he  sleeps,  how  much  fresh 
air  he  has  at  his  command,  any  or  all  of  these  items 
of  his  daily  regime  bear  heavily  on  his  mental  de- 
velopment and  often  make  or  mar  his  educational 
course.  Being  physical,  and  therefore  not  always 
appreciated  as  having  direct  mental  bearings,  being 
distant  from  the  schoolroom,  and,  therefore,  not 
easily  observable,  and  being  confined  to  the  home, 
and  hence  intensely  difficult  to  amend,  such  causes 
are  the  hardest  of  all  to  deal  with  effectively.  It  is 
a  great  help  for  a  teacher  in  any  particular  case  to 
know  that  home  conditions  are  at  the  bottom  of  the 
matter.  It  enables  her  to  put  the  blame  where  it 
belongs  and  not  to  put  it  where  it  does  not  belong. 
The  following  case  illustrates  how  blame  may  be 
misplaced : 

Sarah  was  a  girl  about  nine  who  came  to  school 
every  morning  and  regularly  put  her  head  down  on 
her  arms  on  her  desk  and  for  half  an  hour  refused 
to  do  anything  whatsoever.  Punishment  succeeded 
in  developing  only  a  spell  of  stubborn  suUenness, 
and  coaxing  was  of  no  avail.  If  she  was  left  en- 
tirely undisturbed,  Sarah  seemed  to  fall  into  a  half 
stupor  from  which  she  aroused  herself  gradually 
and  with  effort  and  assumed  little  by  little  the  duties 


ENVIRONMENT  115 

of  the  day.  She  was  always  more  dull  and  stupid 
than  the  normal  children,  but  behaved  well  and 
seemed  to  try  to  learn  though  she  suffered  from  a 
number  of  physical  defects. 

Finally,  through  the  social  service  department  of 
a  clinic,  her  home  was  investigated.  It  consisted  of 
two  rooms  in  a  tenement  located  in  the  crowded  sec- 
tion of  a  large  eastern  city.  In  those  two  rooms  a 
family  of  nine  persons,  father,  mother  and  seven 
children,  ate,  slept  and  lived.  How  they  did  it  the 
dwellers  in  the  slums  only  know.  They  had  no  reg- 
ular bedtime  nor  meal-times.  They  went  to  bed  and 
rose  as  fancy  or  the  demands  of  their  work  dictated. 
On  the  table  was  always  a  loaf  of  bread  and  per- 
haps some  bologna  sausage,  and  on  the  stove  a  pot 
of  black  coffee  or  tea.  In  winter  windows  were 
kept  closed  to  save  fuel  and  the  conditions  of  such 
a  sleeping  place  can  only  be  imagined.  From  a  night 
in  such  quarters,  Sarah  rose,  dressed,  seized  a  hasty 
bite  of  bread  and  meat,  swallowed  some  coffee,  if 
there  was  any,  and  hurried  off  to  school.  There 
outraged  nature  asserted  itself  and  the  worn-out 
nervous  system  racked  all  night  by  city  noises,  dis- 
turbances, poisoned  air  and  over-crowded  quarters, 
seized  the  opportunity  in  this  comparative  repose 
and  fell  into  a  kind  of  stupor. 

What  this  single  illustration  teaches  might  be  en- 
forced by  literally  thousands  of  examples,  for  thou- 
sands of  backward  children  among  the  six  million 
pedagogically  retarded  ones,  suffer  from  lack  of 


116  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

food,  improper  food  and  poor  housing.  However, 
the  converse,  that  all  poorly  fed  and  poorly  housed 
children  are  backward,  is  not  true;  though  in  all 
probability  there  is  a  close  connection  between  the 
two.  That  coffee-drinking  has  something  to  do  with 
low  grades  in  conduct  and  studies  is  indicated  by 
Mr.  C.  K.  Taylor's  statements  concerning  four  hun- 
dred and  sixty-four  pupils.  The  general  average 
for  conduct  for  those  not  drinking  coffee  was  sev- 
enty-five and  six-tenths  per  cent.,  while  for  all  of 
those  drinking  it  was  seventy-three  per  cent.  Those 
who  drank  four  cups  a  day  averaged  only  sixty- 
seven  and  eight-tenths  per  cent.  In  their  grades  a 
similar  result  was  found.  For  the  month  in  which 
the  test  was  made,  the  non-coffee-drinkers  averaged 
seventy-three  and  fourth-tenths  per  cent.,  and  the 
drinkers  seventy  and  eight-tenths  per  cent.  Those 
drinking  four  cups  a  day  averaged  only  sixty-three 
and  eight-tenths  per  cent.  Other  conditions  not 
conducive  to  study  may  have  entered  into  the  total 
situation,  but  with  these  figures  before  us,  it  hardly 
seems  possible  to  treat  coffee-drinking  by  children 
as  a  matter  of  indifference.  Yet  the  habit  is  most 
common.  Doctor  Chapin  reported  that  out  of  two 
hundred  and  sixty-two  New  York  school  children, 
ninety-three  per  cent,  had  tea  or  coffee  every  day, 
and  forty  per  cent,  twice  a  day.  Investigations 
made  in  New  York,  Chicago,  Philadelphia,  Bos- 
ton, St.  Paul,  and  other  large  cities  go  to  show; 


ENVIRONMENT  117 

that  about  ten  per  cent,  of  the  school  children  are 
seriously  underfed.  This  comes  from  several  con- 
ditions. Some  children  do  not  have  enough  pro- 
vided at  home.  Gathered  from  many  sources  sta- 
tistics indicate  that  about  fifty  or  sixty  per  cent, 
of  city  school  children  do  not  have  enough  break- 
fast, and  possibly  eight  to  ten  per  cent,  have  no 
breakfast.  Some  of  these  go  home  for  lunch,  but 
many  either  buy  penny  lunches  or  do  without  eating 
at  noon.  In  Philadelphia  it  is  estimated  that  school 
children  spend  one  hundred  and  seventy  thousand 
dollars  annually  away  from  home  for  lunches.  John 
Spargo  noted  that  in  New  York  City  the  girls  and 
boys  bought  lunches  chiefly  composed  of  pickles, 
ice-cream,  candy,  bananas,  bread,  bologna  and 
pickled  fish.  Some  of  the  boys  preferred  to  gam- 
ble with  their  pennies  to  spending  them  for  such 
lunches,  and  it  is  a  nice  question  to  determine  which 
was  worse  on  their  morals. 

How  much  such  articles  of  diet  affect  children's 
studies  has  never  been  ascertained.  That  they  do 
affect  them  materially  for  the  worse  goes  without 
saying.  It  seems  impossible  that  brains  taking  one- 
eighth  of  the  blood  in  the  human  body  could  work 
well  when  supplied  with  an  arterial  circulation  which 
must  be  affected  by  ferments  and  toxins  generated 
from  disproportionate  amounts  of  acids  and  sweets 
like  ice-cjeam  and  chocolates.  Education  working 
on  the  masses  is  the  only  cure  in  sight  for  these 


118  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

conditions.  The  school-lunch  movements  not  only 
alleviate  present  conditions  but  educate  for  the  fu- 
ture. 

A  common  cause  of  retardation  is  the  influence  of 
companions.  This  potent  determiner  of  a  pupiFs 
studiousness  reveals  itself  most  prominently  in  col- 
lege life.  When  he  leaves  home  for  college  there 
to  take  his  life  in  his  own  hands,  probably  to  live 
in  a  fraternity  house  where  every  item  of  his 
daily  conduct  is  intimately  acted  and  reacted  on  by 
other  youths,  the  overpowering  importance  of  com- 
pany comes  out.  Many  a  college  student  has  been 
made  or  marred  by  his  college  companions.  Many 
a  one  has  been  saved  by  the  simple  expedient  of 
changing  his  lodging  or  boarding-house  and  so  fall- 
ing in  with  a  totally  new  group  of  men. 

This  tendency  to  conform  to  the  ideals  of  the 
group,  or  to  the  "gang  spirit,"  expressed  so  prom- 
inently in  college,  is  also  present  in  boys  of  pri- 
mary-school age.  With  them  home  influence  usually 
holds  it  in  check.  Sometimes,  however,  the  home 
fails  and  the  boy  suffers  in  his  studies,  not  because 
he  is  naturally  bad  morally  or  mentally,  but  because 
of  untoward  or  unfair  conditions.  Any  one  can 
feel  this  truth  in  the  following  story : 

Allan  was  a  boy  born  across  the  water  while  his 
father,  for  business  reasons,  was  in  America,  where 
one  cause  after  another  kept  the  father  until  his  boy 
was  ten  years  old.  Allan  did  not  feel  the  loss  of  all 
those  ties  that  go  to  make  fathers  dear  to  their 


ENVIRONMENT  119 

boys  and  boys  dear  to  their  fathers.  He  had  never 
known  them,  and  besides,  his  mother  and  his  grand- 
parents made  up  much  that  his  father  could  not  give. 
So  he  grew  and  played,  and  went  to  a  private  school, 
and  was  petted  and  cared  for  by  all  his  relatives 
more  than  he  would  have  been  had  his  father  been 
at  home.  He  was  shielded  from  all  dangers,  spent 
much  time  with  grown  people  and  received  and  re- 
turned a  boundless  affection  for  those  about  him 
and  withal,  was  as  happy  as  a  healthy  red-cheeked 
boy  could  be. 

Then,  to  him  quite  suddenly,  his  mother  and  he 
left  all  the  joys  he  had  known  so  long,  and  came  to 
America  to  join  the  father.  The  change  for  Allan 
can  well  be  imagined.  From  a  country  town  he 
came  to  live  in  a  large  city,  from  fields  and  woods 
and  rivers,  to  an  apartment  house ;  from  a  quiet  pri- 
vate school,  to  a  hurly-burly  American  public  school. 

His  father  was  strange  to  him  and  he  was  strange 
to  his  father.  His  mother  tried  to  make  it  up  to  him 
and  managed  to  do  so  until  the  care  of  Allan's  sis- 
ter took  her  time.  Then  came  the  sorest  trial  of 
this  little  boy's  life. 

For  nearly  a  year  he  had  done  fairly  well  in  his 
studies,  as  well  as  could  be  expected  for  a  pupil 
with  such  a  totally  new  curriculum.  Then  he  be- 
gan gradually  to  fall  behind  his  class.  All  his  school- 
work  suffered  about  the  same  decline.  At  first  the 
teachers  thought  it  might  be  temporary,  but  the 
lagging  continued.     The  immediate  cause  of  it  ap- 


120  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

peared  in  his  indifference  to  his  studies  and  his  lack 
of  attention.  His  teachers  noticed  that  and  won- 
dered at  it  because  he  had  always  before  been  so  in- 
terested and  eager  in  his  strange  shy  way.  Along 
with  his  inattentiveness  and  backwardness  had  come 
a  deep  and  more  subtle  change  of  general  attitude. 
He  was  not  so  shy  nor  uncertain.  He  had  acquired 
a  certain  self-confidence.  He  listened  to  admoni- 
tions about  study  with  an  air  of  superiority  as  if  he 
had  found  something  better.  His  parents  noticed 
the  same  kind  of  change  and  still  others  wdth  it.  He 
did  not  spend  his  evenings  at  home,  but  lived  them 
on  the  streets  in  spite  of  warnings  and  finally  pun- 
ishments, neither  of  which  did  any  good.  His  de- 
terioration was  rapid.  In  a  few  months  he  had 
changed  from  one  of  the  most  docile  to  one  of  the 
most  unprofitable  boys  in  school,  irregular,  tardy, 
indifferent,  bored;  speedily  falling  into  the  class  of 
hopeless  retardants.  Yet  nothing  appeared  on  the 
surface  to  account  for  this  distressing  change. 

His  condition  became  so  bad  and  the  causes  so 
baffling  that  he  was  taken  to  a  clinic  for  special  ex- 
amination. Nothing  was  found  in  his  physical  or 
mental  condition  that  would  explain  his  miscon- 
duct or  his  pedagogical  retardation.  A  social 
worker  was  sent  to  his  home  where  the  above  de- 
scribed home  conditions  were  found  to  exist.  Then 
she  went  to  the  school  and  watched  Allan  on  the 
playground.  His  companions  were  a  revelation. 
Instead  of  associating  with  neatly  dressed  boys  of 


ENVIRONMENT  121 

his  own  social  standing,  she  found  he  was  the 
hanger-on  of  a  group  of  ragamuffins  most  of  whom 
were  older  than  he  was,  and  most  of  whom  were 
also  retarded  in  their  schooling  and  therefore  were 
still  in  that  school  of  primary  grades.  To  these  boys 
Allan  was  a  treasure.  He  brought  them  cakes,  fruit, 
candies  and  money  he  had  been  browbeaten  into 
taking  from  home.  So  pitiably  simple-minded  was 
he  that  he  gloried  in  his  membership  in  the  gang 
and  rejoiced  in  the  comradeship  of  these  fellows  and 
his  apparent  importance  in  their  eyes.  To  the  so- 
cial worker  the  whole  cruel  situation  came  with  the 
force  of  a  child- world  tragedy.  The  lonesome  lit- 
tle foreigner  had  never  played  much  with  boys ; 
they  were  strange  to  him  and  their  games  stranger 
still.  At  school  he  was  an  outcast;  at  home  neg- 
lected. At  the  lowest  ebb  of  his  spirits  when  he  was 
ready  to  make  friends  with  anybody,  he  fell  in  with 
this  gang  of  idlers,  who  welcomed  him  as  a  new 
source  of  diversion  and  exploitation,  and  speedily 
impregnated  his  simple  mind  with  ideals  all  at  vari- 
ance with  obedience,  study  and  honesty.  Who  could 
blame  this  homesick,  lonely  boy  if  he  accepted  the 
superior  wisdom  of  these  older  boys  and  fell  a  ready 
victim  to  their  advice  and  their  practises  ?  He  felt 
in  every  particular  like  the  country  boy  who  plunges 
for  the  first  time  into  city  life  and  grows  an  abnor- 
mal sophistication  which  pities  the  simplicity  of  his 
country  home. 

Once  the  cause  of  Allan's  degenerative  course  was 


122  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

found  out,  it  was  not  hard  to  reverse  it.  First,  his 
father  was  given  a  word  or  two  of  advice  about 
paternal  duties  and  the  superior  efficacy  of  well- 
regulated  amusements  and  evenings  at  home  over 
the  too  ready  resort  to  the  rod.  Next,  the  teach- 
er's help  was  enlisted  and  pains  were  taken  to  see 
that  the  stranger  took  lessons  in  American  citizen- 
ship by  learning  American  games.  The  effect  was 
immediate  and  the  final  effect  most  satisfactory. 
Allan  regained  his  normal  spirits,  returned  again  to 
the  study  of  his  school-books,  and  at  last  accounts 
was  as  proud  of  his  new  baseball  and  bat  as  any 
young  American. 

An  instance  of  retardation  and  moral  delinquency 
of  aggravated  form  is  the  following.  A  boy  of 
twelve  years,  from  a  most  excellent  family,  of  fine 
physical  appearance,  and  apparently  of  more  than 
usual  intellectual  ability,  fell  steadily  behind  in  his 
school-work  until  he  was  two  years  behind  his  class. 
His  father  was  dead,  and  on  account  of  certain  cir- 
cumstances, his  mother  was  compelled  to  give  much 
of  her  attention  to  her  own  father's  business.  As 
a  result,  this  boy,  Rupert,  was  left  more  to  his  own 
resources  and  with  less  supervision  than  he  would 
have  had  with  a  father  and  a  mother  who  could 
give  him  the  usual  care  bestowed  on  growing  boys. 
He  lived  in  a  beautiful  suburb  of  an  eastern  city, 
where  the  fine  physical  appointments  and  the  high 
social  positions  of  the  largest  part  of  its  residents 
gave  an  added  sense  of  security  to  the  parents  of 


ENVIRONMENT  123 

sons.  But  there,  as  everywhere,  the  upper  classes 
had  their  complement  of  lower  classes,  and  among 
the  latter  Rupert  found  his  companions. 

How  his  association  with  them  began  is  not 
clearly  known.  It  seemed  to  date  from  the  visit 
of  a  cheap  circus  to  the  town.  Rupert,  like  all 
healthy  youngsters,  in  the  nomadic  period  of  his 
life,  was  wild  about  the  show,  its  animals,  its  per- 
formers and  its  fascinating  free  life.  During  the 
three  days  it  remained,  he  spent  all  the  time  he 
could  down  among  the  tents,  was  delighted  when 
permitted  to  carry  water  for  the  horses,  or  to  do  any 
other  menial  task  he  was  asked  to  do;  associated 
with  the  circus  hangers-on,  and  met  and  mingled 
freely  with  a  class  of  boys,  black  and  white,  whom 
he  had  seen  before  but  had  instinctively  avoided. 
Their  common  liking  for  the  circus,  its  life  and  its 
spirit,  was  a  strong  bond  between  Rupert  and  his 
new-found  friends.  He  entered  into  their  life  with 
the  zest  of  boyish  enthusiasm  and  the  fascination 
of  a  novel  experience. 

After  the  circus  left,  the  boy  continued  his  close 
and  daily  contact  with  the  same  gang  of  boys. 
Gradually  he  fell  into  their  ways  of  doing,  and 
what  was  not  so  obvious,  but  even  more  serious, 
into  their  ways  of  thinking.  He  became  a  part  of 
them,  a  leader  in  some  respects;  fawned  upon  by 
them  for  his  superior  talents,  better  clothes  and 
ready  supply  of  money.  Inevitably  the  first  pranks 
degenerated  into  acts  of  hoodlumism,  and  then  into 


124  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

petty  thieving  until  the  latter  practise  became  quite 
serious,  and  included  the  purloining  of  large  sums 
from  home.  Parallel  with  the  moral  delinquency 
went  intellectual  deterioration  and  neglect  of  study 
until  Rupert  fell  far  behind  his  class.  The  whole 
process  continued  over  a  period  of  three  years.. 
Punishments  were  of  no  avail  to  compel  him  to 
study  nor  to  separate  him  from  his  gang.  Finally, 
so  serious  did  his  infatuation  for  his  comrades  be- 
come and  so  detrimental  to  his  mental  life  was  the 
effect  that  he  was  taken  to  a  clinic  for  a  mental 
examination. 

No  physical  marks  of  abnormality,  no  special 
mental  defects  beyond  general  pedagogical  retarda- 
tion, and  no  moral  deviations  beyond  those  incident 
to  a  bad  environment  appeared.  To  observe  the  boy 
still  further,  he  was  placed  for  a  month  or  more  in  a 
special  class  where  no  abnormalities  developed,  and 
where  Rupert  showed  himself  to  be  amenable  to 
discipline  and  capable  of  study.  No  special  peda- 
gogical devices  were  necessary  to  secure  from  him 
fair  work  and  considerable  improvement.  The  ex- 
periment in  the  new  surroundings  was  considered 
a  sufficient  demonstration  of  the  cause  of  his  re- 
tardation and  he  was  entered  in  a  very  good  board- 
ing-school. 

There  among  new  surroundings  his  improve- 
ment continued,  and  at  last  report  he  was  making 
good  progress,  had  readily  adjusted  himself  to  his 
new  environment  and  was  part  and  parcel  of  the 


ENVIRONMENT  125 

new  group,  entering  into  the  games  and  ideals  of 
the  students  as  if  he  never  had  been  afflicted  with 
an  almost  ruinous  and  abnormal  predilection  for  a 
street-gang  of  low  order.  His  face  and  his  bearing 
betoken  a  boy  of  more  than  usual  nobility  in  char- 
acter and  breeding.  His  temporary  aberration  was 
due  to  the  power  of  ideals  grafted  on  his  mind  by  the 
crowd  of  boys  among  whom  he  inadvertently  fell. 

The  Conversion  of  a  Gang. — ^These  two  cases 
illustrate  what  can  be  done  by  removing  boys  from 
the  influence  of  the  gang.  Sometimes  this  is  not 
possible  and  the  teacher  is  squarely  faced  with  the 
project  of  converting  the  gang  for  the  sake  of  its 
retarded  members.  I  am  not  aware  that  the  gang 
has  been  very  widely  studied  from  this  point  of 
view,  nor  that  its  value  as  a  pedagogical  asset  has 
been  thoroughly  explored.  The  following  twCT  in- 
stances may  indicate  how  the  gang  may  be  con- 
verted and  its  members  saved  to  the  school,  first, 
by  individual  efforts,  and  second,  by  organized 
efforts. 

In  a  country  town,  a  group  of  boys  in  the  upper 
grades  had  gradually  crystallized  into  a  gang  of 
young  vandals,  full  of  mischief,  given  over  to  night- 
prowling  and  day-loafing,  to  indolence  in  school  and 
rebellion  against  study.  Among  them  it  was  counted 
smart  to  be  ignorant  and  big  to  neglect  openly  all 
school  tasks.  When  any  pupil  through  desire, 
shame  or  fear,  attempted  to  get  his  lessons,  he 
was   greeted   with   sneers   and   jeers,    called   "the 


126  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

teacher's  pet,"  and  threatened  with  ostracism  from 
the  group.  As  the  town  was  small  and  the  boys 
of  thirteen  to  fifteen  or  sixteen  were  not  many,  as  the 
swimming  hole,  baseball  field,  woods  and  streams 
were  common  property,  it  meant  much  to  the  one 
made  an  outcast  by  his  diligence.  The  condition  was 
called  to  the  teacher's  attention  by  declining  grades 
and  by  increasing  retardation  of  certain  boys.  All 
the  usual  methods  of  stimulation  were  tried  and 
failed.  The  situation  was  becoming  daily  more 
serious  in  the  school,  had  attracted  attention  out- 
side, and  as  usual  led  to  a  suggestion  for  a  new 
teacher. 

At  that  point  the  principal  took  matters  in  hand. 
He  began  by  studying  the  situation  indoors  and 
outdoors.  He  soon  discovered  the  outlines  of  the 
gang  and  noted  that  the  line  of  demarcation  be- 
tween the  gang  and  the  good  students  was  the 
same.  His  first  appearance  on  the  playground  was 
made  one  day  at  recess  when  this  particular  group 
of  destructive  imps  was  bombarding  the  maple 
trees  with  stones  from  the  graveled  walks.  There 
was  a  pause  in  the  throwing,  a  pretense  of  picking 
up  more  stones  to  throw,  a  bravado  attempt  on  the 
part  of  the  boys  to  look  unconcerned.  The  prin- 
cipal took  in  the  situation,  and  in  a  half  querulous 
tone,  remarked,  "Why  don't  you  boys  set  up  that 
old  tin  pail  and  see  who  can  hit  it  at  ten  paces?" 
Partly   to    cover    an    embarrassing    situation    the 


ENVIRONMENT  127 

boys  set  up  the  pail  and  started  in  to  throw  per- 
functorily. The  principal  kept  the  score,  the  in- 
terest warmed  up,  and  by  the  time  recess  ended, 
the  gang  was  hot  in  the  midst  of  a  contest  of  throw- 
ing, the  pail  was  nearly  annihilated,  and  the  prin- 
cipal was  one  of  the  gang. 

The  principal  followed  up  his  initiation  by  spend- 
ing recesses  and  noon-hours  on  the  playground.  He 
introduced,  organized  and  inspired  games.  H^ 
showed  that  brains  won  "prisoners'  base/'  and  he 
developed  generals  and  generalship  as  it  was  never 
known  in  that  pastime  before.  He  permitted  the 
boys  and  girls  to  play  together  and  so  infused  a 
spirit  of  chivalry  into  the  contests.  He  played  ball, 
coached  the  pitchers  and  showed  himself  to  be  an 
all-round  man.  He  won  their  respect  and  admira- 
tion on  the  playground  and,  before  they  knew  it, 
they  found  themselves  transferring  the  glow  of  the 
games  to  the  lessons  of  the  schoolroom  and  there 
desiring  the  same  warm  approbation  from  their 
principal  that  he  gave  so  generously  to  athletic 
ability. 

It  was  not  long  before  Saturdays  and  Sundays 
were  utilized.  The  teacher  organized  hikes,  as 
they  would  be  called  now,  taught  his  boys  to  camp 
and  cook,  to  see  curious  things  in  nature,  to  study 
geography  in  open  fields,  and  history  in  landmarks. 
Gradually  the  original  nucleus  expanded  until  other 
boys  who  formerly  did  not  belong  to  the  gang,  were 


128  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

introduced;  and  being  good  scholars,  and  being 
found  also  to  be  good  fellows,  they  leavened  the 
whole  lump  with  new  ideals. 

It  was  not  all  done  in  a  day  nor  so  smoothly  as 
I  have  hinted.  There  were  periods  of  suspense  and 
crises.  The  great  crisis  came  in  a  blacksmith  shop. 
It  happened  that  the  ringleader  of  the  gang  was  a 
big  husky  son  of  the  town  blacksmith,  a  man  of 
natural  force  and  some  influence,  but  little  educa- 
tion. He  had  rather  gloried  in  his  son's  leadership 
against  study  and  listened  readily  to  boys'  criticisms 
of  the  principal's  new  tactics,  acquiescing  in  the 
suspicions  and  growing  sentiment  that  *'A  teacher 
ought  to  tend  to  his  business  and  spend  his  time 
in  study  instead  of  running  all  over  the  country 
with  a  pack  of  boys."  None  of  this  was  lost  on 
the  principal  who  dropped  around  to  the  blacksmith 
shop  one  day  to  cultivate  the  old  man.  It  happened 
that  they  were  welding  steel  wagon  tires,  a  heavy 
laborious  job  requiring  strength,  alertness  and  skill. 
The  temporary  helper  who  swung  the  sledge  was 
a  half  useless  fellow  who  was  too  slow  and  usually 
wrong.  The  smith  was  in  a  black  sullen  humor, 
and  the  teacher  paused  at  the  door  in  silence,  seeing 
no  propitious  opening  and  not  knowing  what  to  do, 
until  the  exasperating  stupidity  of  the  helper  car- 
ried him  back  to  his  father's  blacksmith  shop,  and 
his  own  days  at  wielding  the  sledge.  Then  before 
he  knew  what  he  was  doing,  when  the  tire  melting 
hot  came  off  the  forge,  he  sprang  forward,  seized 


ENVIRONMENT  129 

the  great  hammer  and  with  a  perfect  rain  of  clean- 
cut  blows,  the  smith  and  he  welded  up  the  neatest 
joint  of  the  day.  The  victory  over  the  gang  was 
won  right  there.  What  the  old  man  said  or  did 
to  his  boy  is  not  recorded,  but  thereafter  Pete,  the 
leader  of  the  gang,  became  the  teacher's  stanchest 
supporter,  though  through  insufficient  brains  he 
could  never  become  a  brilliant  student. 

Organizing  the  Gang-Spirit  for  Study. — Of 
course,  we  know  that  every  one  can  not  swing  a 
sledge  and  that  a  blacksmith  shop  is  not  the  place 
for  a  lady  principal,  but  common  sense  may  glean 
enough  principles  from  the  above  procedure  to  en- 
able a  wise  teacher  to  deal  with  an  unruly  crowd. 
The  next  scene  is  laid  in  the  city  and  gives  general 
account  of  an  organized  effort  to  control  and  direct 
the  gang  spirit  to  study. 

Mickey  Hogan  was  short  and  stocky,  older  than 
he  looked,  red-headed  and  freckled  as  his  name  de- 
manded, and  as  Hibernian  as  Irish  ancestors  and 
American  birth  could  make  him.  He  was  lord  of 
the  streets  in  his  neighborhood,  a  terror  to  good- 
doers  among  his  schoolmates,  a  retarded  pupil  by 
choice,  not  by  necessity,  and  leader  of  a  self -per- 
petuating gang  in  the  school  where  he  went.  The 
gang  had  long  been  the  despair  of  the  teachers. 
That  part  of  the  city  was  little  enough  conducive 
to  study  as  it  was  and  retardation  was  so  rife  that 
no  artificial  stimulation  was  needed  to  make  it 
thrive.    But  the  gang  did  stimulate  ideals  altogether 


130  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

opposed  to  intellectual  ideals  and  Mickey  was  their 
prophet. 

One  day  an  event  occurred  in  his  school.  He, 
with  some  other  boys  of  his  age,  was  called  into  a 
room  and  there  met  a  strange  man  with  scales, 
measuring-rods,  calipers  and  other  curious  instru- 
ments. Mickey,  true  to  his  cult,  viewed  the  pro- 
ceedings with  the  superciliousness  of  a  boy  inured 
to  the  new  education,  but  with  trembling  in  his 
heart,  and  a  rebellion  near  to  the  surface.  The 
man  began  to  put  the  boys  through  some  measure- 
ments and  to  make  comments.  His  manner  was 
pleasant  and  businesslike,  and  since  no  extra  study 
appeared  to  be  involved  in  the  process  which  seemed 
to  be  concerned  with  muscles  and  breathing-power, 
Mickey  got  interested  in  the  measurements  of  biceps 
and  in  the  tin  can  for  measuring  lung-power,  that 
raised  up  like  a  gas  tank  when  one  blew  through 
the  rubber  tube.  He  was  eager  for  his  turn  and 
swelled  his  biceps  and  squared  his  shoulders  and 
drew  himself  up  to  his  full  stocky  height.  When 
he  came  to  the  lung-power  machine,  he  made  up 
his  mind  to  blow  it  out  at  the  top,  but  was  surprised 
to  find  how  soon  the  rising  reservoir  stopped.  Try 
as  he  would,  he  could  not  muster  another  breath 
and  the  indicator  showed  he  blew  less  than  a  boy 
with  a  clean  face,  whom  Mickey  despised. 

"Try  again,"  said  the  man  good-naturedly,  and 
Mickey  took  a  long  breath  and  emptied  his  lungs 
into  the  tube.    It  was  no  use.    The  indicator  would 


ENVIRONMENT  131 

stop  at  about  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  cubic 
inches. 

Then  the  man  slipped  a  tape-line  around  his  chest 
under  his  arms  and  measured  Mickey's  chest  ex- 
pansion. It  was  suspiciously  small.  "Too  many 
cigarettes,  my  boy,"  said  the  man  in  a  perfectly 
matter-of-fact  voice,  "you're  cutting  into  your 
wind.  YouVe  got  a  mighty  fine  build  but  you 
won't  last  at  the  pace  you  are  going."  Mickey  was 
both  delighted  and  frightened.  He  was  proud  to 
be  considered  "tough,''  but  he  did  not  like  to  think 
it  interfered  with  his  health  and  strength.  He  was 
sensitive  about  his  short  stature  and  had  always 
taken  comfort  in  his  sturdiness.  To  have  it  demon- 
strated by  an  apparatus  that  could  not  lie,  and  re- 
marked on  casually  by  a  man  who  did  not  care, 
placed  the  judgment  beyond  dispute. 

Mickey  listened  very  attentively  to  the  rest  of  the 
man's  scheme.  It  was  simple  enough.  At  the  end 
of  another  six  months  all  the  boys  were  to  be  meas- 
ured again.  The  boy  who  showed  the  greatest 
all-round  physical  development  would  have  his  pic- 
ture framed  and  hung  up  in  the  schoolhouse  hall 
for  all  the  boys  to  see  and  admire.  Frequent  talks 
would  be  given  by  experts  telling  the  boys  how  to 
grow  strong.  To  gain  strength  meant  regular  hours, 
plenty  of  sleep,  plain  food,  without  coffee,  tea,  much 
candy,  ice-cream  or  soda-water,  and  positively  no 
cigarettes  or  tobacco.  It  was  rather  a  stiff  program 
for  some  of  the  boys  and  especially  Mickey,  but  he 


132  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

took  a  big  breath  and  resolved  to  try  it.  It  was  a 
good  thing  that  he  did  not  then  know  all  the  details 
of  the  struggle.  For  the  next  six  months  he  fought 
his  battles  grimly.  His  eye  was  single  for  the 
physical  prize,  but  his  teachers  soon  noted  an  im- 
provement in  his  studies.  The  reasons  for  that 
were  many.  The  chief  ones  were  his  improved 
health,  which  in  boyhood  follows  rapidly  any  better- 
ment in  hygiene,  and  the  fact  that  he  stayed  at  home 
nights  to  keep  out  of  temptation  and  having  nothing 
else  to  do,  he  studied.  What  was  happening  to 
Mickey  was  happening  in  a  more  or  less  degree  to 
his  followers.  All  of  them  were  not  so  determined 
as  he,  but  they  were  still  following  their  leader  in 
this  new  quest  for  physical  might.  As  a  result 
their  attitude  changed  from  indifference  to  any- 
thing good  to  intense  interest  in  one  good  thing 
and  to  subsidiary  interests  in  many  other  things. 
Their  studies  and  conduct  improved  with  the  build- 
ing of  their  bodies.  The  talks  on  hygiene  were 
constantly  stimulating.  Clubs  were  organized  by 
university  students,  and  trips  were  taken  to  parks 
and  to  the  outlying  country;  exercises  were  given; 
deep  breathing  was  practised  daily ;  colored  button- 
badges  were  distributed  as  marks  of  honor,  and  the 
old  gang  spirit  was  captured,  tamed  and  harnessed 
to  works  of  good  instead  of  evil. 

The  six  months  were  up  at  last  and  Mr.  Taylor, 
the  organizer  of  the  movement,  now  an  old  friend 
to  the  boys,  reappeared  with  his  scales,  tapes  and 


ENVIRONMENT  133 

calipers,  and  amid  many  a  nervous  jest  and  jibe, 
the  boys  went  through  their  tests.  Mickey  won. 
He  ought  to  have  won.  Nobody  had  been  more 
faithful  to  the  daily  exercises  than  he.  He  had 
commanded  the  admiration  of  his  teachers,  too, 
for  his  sturdy  adherence  to  study  and  his  advance 
in  school  work.  Not  only  had  his  influence  per- 
meated his  crowd  with  new  zeal  for  intellectual 
things,  but  he  had  interested  his  hard-working 
father,  a  man  seemingly  infinitely  removed  from 
school  affairs,  but  who  himself  had  had  athletic 
aspirations  in  his  young  days.  When  Mickey  an^ 
nounced  that  he  had  won  and  would  have  his  pic- 
ture taken,  his  father  was  so  delighted  that  forth- 
with he  took  his  son  to  a  store  and  bought  him  a  pair 
of  tights  with  green  plush  trunks,  and  in  that  cos- 
tume, Mickey,  with  his  arms  proudly  folded,  with 
his  knuckles  under  his  biceps,  was  photographed 
and  his  picture  hangs  in  his  school  to-day. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  BACKWARD  CHILD  IN  THE  HOME 

WHAT  star  was  in  the  ascendant  when  Jer- 
rold  was  born  is  a  question.  Surely  he  was 
lucky  to  pass  from  the  blankness  of  nothingness 
into  a  mansion  where  every  tenderness  and  luxury 
waited  for  him.  Unlucky  he  was  in  the  journey, 
for  one  leg  and  one  arm  were  paralyzed.  It  was 
bad  enough  in  itself  for  him  to  enter  life  maimed, 
but  his  ailment  made  matters  worse.  It  was  aston- 
ishing how  many  hard  things  in  life  that  helpless 
arm  and  leg  were  able  to  ward  off.  Not  a  task 
was  Jerrold  ever  permitted  to  perform  for  himself. 
From  birth  through  babyhood  nurses  and  eiderdown 
were  his  alternatives.  Servants  tended  him  day 
and  night,  washed  him,  fed  him,  dressed  him  and 
kept  him  helpless  all  through  a  pampered  childhood, 
marked  not  by  stages  of  achievement,  but  merely 
by  the  passage  of  empty  years.  When  he  was  seven 
he  was  still  a  baby;  when  he  was  fourteen,  he  was 
a  child  of  seven.  His  body  grew;  he  learned  to 
walk  by  dragging  one  foot;  he  could  not  use  one 
hand;  everything  that  medical  science  knew  had 
been  done  for  him,  but  he  was  a  cripple. 

At  about  fourteen,  after  money  had  done  every- 

134 


IN  THE   HOME  135 

thing  for  him  except  the  essential,  he  drifted  into 
a  boarding-school.  It  is  hard  to  believe  that  a  boy 
from  such  a  home  could  be  in  such  a  state.  At  first 
glance  his  personal  appearance  betokened  pure  im- 
becility. His  face  wore  the  vacuous  look  of  an  im- 
becile ;  his  lips  hung  ajar,  and  he  drooled  saliva  like  a 
baby;  his  clothes  were  of  excellent  material  but  worn 
slovenly;  his  left  hand  was  held  closed  to  his  side, 
as  useless  as  the  claw  of  a  fiddler-crab;  the  toe  of 
his  left  foot  dragged  on  the  ground  as  he  walked, 
or  hopped  about  in  his  ludicrous  efforts  to  play. 
To  all  appearances  he  was  a  slouching,  helpless, 
grinning  simpleton. 

He  could  not  do  anything.  No  royal  imbecile 
was  ever  more  helpless.  He  had  never  washed  his 
face  and  hands,  combed  his  hair,  dressed  himself, 
tied  a  shoe-string  or  neck-tie,  buttoned  a  but- 
ton, nor  taken  a  bath  unassisted,  in  all  his  life. 
Servants  had  done  it  all.  They  had  followed  him 
about,  taking  his  orders,  enduring  his  high  temper 
and  childish  abuse,  waiting  on  him  hand  and  foot, 
bringing  to  him  what  he  required  and  picking  up 
what  he  threw  down.  He  ate  like  a  savage,  grab- 
bing his  food  in  his  hand  and  thrusting  it  into  his 
mouth  till  it  was  stuffed  full,  and  then  champing 
it  like  a  dog.  An  extreme  case,  you  say.  It  was, 
but  a  true  one  in  all  essentials.  His  extremity  is 
what  makes  it  valuable,  as  the  end  will  show. 

At  school,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life,  Jerrold 
fell  among  boys.    They  began  his  training.     Since 


136  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

his  table  manners  were  so  bad,  he  was  given  a  small 
table  in  the  corner  of  a  room  and  a  young  man  ate 
with  him.  He  was  compelled,  on  pain  of  missing 
dessert,  to  eat  with  a  knife  and  fork,  to  chew  his 
food  and  otherwise  to  act  rationally.  Next,  he 
was  taught  to  take  a  bath  under  a  shower  by  com- 
pulsion, during  which  the  back  of  a  hair-brush 
wielded  by  students  aided  his  circulation  and  sus- 
tained his  perseverance  in  the  operation.  His  hands, 
which  were  black  with  grime,  were  scrubbed  with 
a  scrubbing-brush  and  a  repetition  of  that  vigorous 
method  promised  unless  he  kept  them  reasonably 
clean.  His  dressing  was  taken  in  hand  and  he  was 
compelled  to  put  on  his  clothes  and  to  button  but- 
tons. His  shoe-strings  were  laced  and  tied  for  him 
once  and  then  he  was  shown  how  he  could  unhook 
and  hook  them  without  untying  or  tying  them. 
His  teeth  and  his  hair  were  turned  over  to  his  care, 
and  he  soon  learned  to  take  pride  in  keeping  his  hair 
smooth  and  his  teeth  white. 

In  the  meantime  his  outdoor  life  was  not  neg- 
lected. He  began  at  the  school  to  play  with  boys 
half  his  age;  but  he  was  shamed  out  of  that  and 
introduced  to  sports  more  fitting  to  his  years.  His 
fellow-students  were  patient  and  good-natured 
here  and  he  did  his  best.  They  undertook  to 
straighten  his  arm  and  fingers,  invented  a  brace 
for  his  arm,  exercised  and  massaged  his  fingers 
into  strength  and  motion,  pulled  his  arm  straight 
and  put  muscle  on  it.     Jerrold  responded  nobly  to 


IN   THE   HOME  137 

all  that.  He  wanted  to  be  big  and  strong.  He 
worshiped  the  big  center  on  the  football  team 
and  would  obey  him  with  canine  docility.  In  a 
couple  of  years  he  grew  by  eating,  bathing  and  ex- 
ercising into  a  robust  boy.  His  features  changed, 
his  mouth  closed,  his  arm  gained  its  powers,  his 
hand  its  cunning,  and  he  walked,  still  with  the 
slightest  limp,  but  with  his  foot  flat  on  the  heel 
and  toe. 

His  studies  showed  similar  improvement.  He 
always  had  brains  but  in  some  respects  they  had 
never  been  developed  beyond  their  baby  stage. 
Travel  and  association,  stories  read  and  told  him, 
had  filled  his  mind  with  much  that  was  good.  His 
environment  had  shielded  him  from  evil.  His 
tutors  had  given  him  the  rudiments.  With  his 
adolescent  mental  awakening  had  come  the  greatest 
increase  in  his  physical  powers.  The  whole 
exhilaration  of  the  period,  natural  and  artificial, 
literally  and  visibly,  made  of  him  a  new  being. 
Instead  of  an  imbecile,  he  was  a  well-dressed,  intelli- 
gent, cultured  young  man;  still  bearing  obscure 
scars  and  lingering  vestiges  of  his  backwardness, 
but  on  the  whole  so  nearly  normal  that  he  visited 
a  college  class  composed  of  teachers  and  students 
of  abnormal  children,  entered  the  room,  sat  through 
the  lecture,  came  forward  and  was  introduced  to 
the  professor,  all  before  the  eyes  of  the  thirty 
students,  none  of  whom  noticed  anything  unusual 
in  his  appearance  or  conduct. 


138  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

This  case  is  valuable  for  illustrating  many  points. 
Three  of  them  I  want  to  note  especially.  First, 
Jerrold's  home  was,  from  the  popular  point  of 
view,  all  that  could  be  desired.  Not  a  material  com- 
fort was  lacking.  The  boy  had  everything  but 
training.  Second,  lacking  that,  he  was  unfitted  for 
all  higher  education.  He  had  not  laid  the  founda- 
tions for  any  kind  of  study.  He  had  formed  no 
habits  of  daily  routine,  and  acquired  no  habits  of 
study.  Third,  as  a  consequence,  not  only  his 
body,  but  his  mind  was  undeveloped.  This  should 
,be  especially  remembered  because  it  is  not  always 
clearly  understood  that  mental  development  begins 
in  the  home  and  comes  through  such  self-help  activ- 
ities as  dressing,  bathing  and  eating. 

Diagnosis. — Backwardness  in  a  child  is  often 
noticed  first  in  the  home.  With  fond  fatuity  the 
parents  seek  to  hide  the  true  seriousness  of  the 
matter  from  themselves,  or  they  comfort  themselves 
with  the  formula,  "He  will  outgrow  it."  Both  pol- 
icies are  wrong.  As  soon  as  mental  retardation  is 
suspected,  a  diagnosis  ought  to  be  made  by  a  spe- 
cialist. This  insistence  admits  of  no  exceptions. 
No  cost  in  time,  trouble  and  money  is  too  great  to 
obtain  it.  Any  parent  who  delays  for  any  reason 
whatsoever  is  risking  the  mental  life  of  the  child. 
None  but  a  specialist  in  mental  retardation  of  chil- 
dren is  fitted  to  make  it.  When  a  trustworthy 
diagnosis  is  made  by  a  specialist  the  treatment  and 


IN   THE   HOME  139 

training  of  the  child  can  proceed  with  the  assur- 
ance that  results  will  be  achieved. 

The  Home  Training. — The  training  should  be- 
gin in  the  cradle.  Habits  of  sleeping,  eating  and 
bathing  can  be  developed  by  an  inviolable  and  im- 
placable order  that  will  lay  the  foundation  for 
that  obedience  which  is  the  first  essential  and  al- 
ways indispensable  condition  of  all  training.  If 
there  is  a  time  in  a  child's  life  when  insistence  on 
a  mechanical  system  and  a  blind  obedience  is  proper 
it  is  during  infancy,  when  the  child's  acts  are 
chiefly  if  not  wholly  reflexive  and  instinctive,  and 
consciousness  has  not  reached  that  acute  state  where 
self-will  and  ideas  of  justice  enter  in.  Indeed,  I 
am  willing  to  go  the  length  of  summing  up  the  aim 
and  method  of  training  the  child  from  birth  to  his 
school-age  in  this:  The  formation  of  habits  by 
repetition  of  self-help  activities. 

Right  habits,  then,  imbedded  in  the  reflex  nervous 
system  of  the  baby  by  an  unfaltering  and  undeviat- 
ing  practise  of  right  habits  by  parents,  lay  the  foun- 
dation for  all  future  training.  The  next  part,  the 
ground  floor  of  the  character-edifice,  is  self-help. 
This  again  is  a  fundamental  and  lifelong  lesson. 
A  child  must  learn  to  dress  himself.  I  put  that  first 
because  it  is  to  his  interest  to  dress  in  order  to  get 
out-of-doors.  If  he  has  been  habituated  in  baby- 
hood to  prompt  and  expeditious  dressing  from  other 
hands,  he  will  try  to  dress  himself  without  delay. 


140  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

If  he  IS  normal,  he  will  succeed  with  very  little 
teaching;  if  he  is  backward,  he  will  require  definite 
instruction  with  all  patience  and  repeated  trials. 
Remember,  too,  that  such  training  is  also  "mental 
development";  it  is  ''education";  is  necessary,  fun- 
damental and  indispensable  to  all  "higher"  acquisi- 
tion. This  truth  is  revealed  by  a  single  glance  at 
the  Montessori  apparatus  with  its  shoe-strings,  but- 
tons and  button-holes.  Following  the  dressing,  eat- 
ing can  be  taken  up.  A  child  must  eat  and  it  is 
comparatively  easy  to  bring  natural  rewards  and 
punishments  to  bear  on  him.  If  he  will  not  eat 
properly  he  can  be  deprived  of  certain  sweetmeats, 
desserts  or  luxuries.  Because  dressing  and  eating 
carry  with  them  the  motives  for  their  performance 
I  have  placed  them  first  in  the  category  of  lessons 
to  be  learned.  Washing  the  face  and  hands  is  not 
necessary.  Often  it  is  a  severe  trial,  especially  with 
boys.    Therefore,  it  is  hard  to  get  a  child  to  do  it. 

Method  of  Home  Training. — I  have  a  feeling 
that  the  emphasis  on  methods  of  child-training  is 
overdone.  It  seems  to  me  that  in  all  this  self-help, 
the  only  method  of  learning  to  do  is  by  doing.  If 
a  child  is  to  learn  to  lace  his  shoes,  he  must  lace 
his  shoes.  Let  him  do  it  himself  and  be  not  over 
particular  how  he  does  it.  If  he  is  to  put  on  his 
trousers  who  cares  which  leg  goes  in  first?  If  he 
is  to  dress,  whether  his  waist,  or  his  stockings  go 
first?  The  whole  process  has  a  definite  beginning 
and  an  end.     That  is  the  educational  beauty  of  it. 


IN  THE   HOME  141 

The  hard  part  is  to  get  the  unwilling  child  to  begin, 
to  proceed  and  to  finish.  To  do  that,  no  new  method 
which  will  dispense  with  parental  good-humor,  pa- 
tience and  firmness,  has  been,  or  will  likely  ever 
be  invented. 

The  place  where  method  comes  in  is  in  the 
method  of  proceeding.  Generally  speaking,  all 
manual  lessons  should  begin  with  large  movements 
first  and  gradually  proceed  to  smaller  and  more  de- 
tailed ones.  Dressing  is  a  suitable  exercise  except 
the  buttons,  shoe-strings,  and  hair-ribbons.  Use 
of  knives  and  forks  is  hard  for  all  little  people. 
Washing  one's  hands  and  face  is  not  an  act  difficult 
to  perform  and  bathing  is  easy ;  but  face-washing  is 
difficult  to  teach  because  boys  do  not  take  to  it 
naturally.  Because  the  ideal  training  can  not  be 
found  in  self-help  it  must  be  supplemented  with 
other  activities. 

The  supplementary  activities  should  be  play.  For 
the  young  child  under  six  years  of  age  chores  are 
impossible.  He  should  engage  in  all  forms  of  out- 
door play  that  involve  the  large  movements  of  run- 
ning, jumping,  rolling  on  the  grass  or  ground, 
climbing,  hobby-horse  riding,  swinging,  throwing, 
playing  in  sand,  and  all  other  games  of  childhood. 
The  busy  mother  can  not  adequately  direct  the  play 
of  her  children  and  she  need  not  worry  about  it. 
One  thing  she  must  do:  Let  them  play.  If  they 
are  well,  they  will  play.  Even  a  retarded  child  will 
play  if  he  has  companions  of  his  own  capacity.    If 


142  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

no  children  are  available  a  puppy  dog  is  the  next 
best  substitute.  Playing  with  grown  people  alone 
generally  has  a  bad  effect  on  children.  The  gap 
between  their  abilities  is  too  great.  Emulation  dis- 
appears and  parasitism  develops.  In  general,  then, 
see  that  the  backward  child  plays  with  children, 
toys  or  animals  that  compel  him  to  do  his  part. 

The  Teacher  in  the  Home. — Finally,  we  come 
to  the  teacher  in  the  home.  That  problem  seems 
easy  to  dismiss  with  that  solution  of  all  children's 
problems,  that  bearer  of  all  their  burdens :  Mother. 
But  is  mother  the  teacher?  Does  not  a  child  have 
two  parents  and  often  grandmothers,  and  older 
sisters,  and  sometimes  aunts  who  are  school- 
teachers ?  And  do  not  all  of  these  persons  lend  their 
conscious  and  unconscious  influence  to  the  training 
of  the  child?  So  important  is  it  that  one  and  only 
one  person  should  have  charge  of  a  child  that  many 
of  the  best  child  specialists  will  not  attempt  to  teach 
any  backward  child  in  the  home.  We  can  not, 
then,  expect  great  results  from  a  mother's  training 
if  that  is  interfered  with  by  any  others  in  the  home. 
Still,  the  mother  is  the  natural  trainer  and  should 
assume  full  charge  of  her  child's  pre-school  educa- 
tion. She  may  not  be  the  best  teacher  in  the  world, 
but  it  is  better  for  all  concerned  if  she  becomes  at 
least  the  head-teacher. 

A  Case  of  Too  Much  Teacher. — Mercer  was 
born  when  his  sister  was  sixteen  years  of  age  and 


IN   THE   HOME  14S 

thought  she  knew  the  same  amount  about  training 
children  that  the  average  young  lady  of  that  age 
thinks  she  knows  plus  the  amount  a  girl  studying 
to  be  a  teacher  thinks  she  knows.  Therefore,  she 
early  took  her  brother's  education  in  hand.  She 
did  not  succeed  in  giving  him  much  book-learning 
before  he  was  six  because  his  father  and  mother, 
both  middle-aged,  thought  he  need  not  be  bothered 
about  such  matters  until  he  went  to  school.  When 
he  started  to  school,  therefore,  the  reign  of  sister 
Clara,  now  aged  twenty-two,  really  began.  It  was 
a  stormy  reign.  Father  and  mother  kept  their  hands 
off  the  lessons  and  Mercer  found  liberty  to  fight  his 
battles  alone.  Usually  the  evening  lesson  which 
began  so  happily  in  the  lamplight  of  the  family 
circle  ended  in  a  domestic  storm,  wilh  Mercer  re- 
bellious, father  skeptical,  mother  resigned  and 
Clara  indignant.  She  said  Mercer  was  stupid  and 
backed  her  assertion  with  the  testimony  of  his 
teachers  who  said  he  had  learned  practically  nothing 
out  of  books  the  six  months  he  was  in  school. 

After  the  evening  lesson,  Mercer  and  his  father 
adjourned  to  the  cellar  where  they  had  a  workshop 
full  of  lovely  things.  At  six  years  Mercer  could 
assemble  parts  of  electric  apparatus,  arranging 
cells,  wires,  coils  and  bells  so  they  would  ring; 
could  attach  an  incandescent  lamp;  could  start  the 
gas  engine  and  operate  it;  and  could  handle  tools 
very  well  for  his  age  and  slight  build.    His  father. 


144  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

who  was  a  machinist,  thought  he  was  the  smartest 
boy  on  earth. 

Mercer  never  played  much  with  other  children. 
He  had  Hved  with  grown  people  all  his  life.  That 
is  why  the  neighbors  said  he  was  beyond  his  years. 
His  mother  and  sister  never  let  him  go  outdoors 
out  of  their  sight.  Sometimes,  while  they  sat  on 
the  porch,  they  let  him  take  his  little  wagon  out 
on  the  sidewalk  and  play  with  other  boys.  But 
if  a  quarrel  arose  and  one  of  the  youngsters  slapped 
him,  instead  of  fighting  like  a  boy,  Mercer  ran 
bawling  to  the  sheltering  arms  of  his  mother  or 
sister.  If  he  played  alone  and  his  automobile  wagon 
upset  the  same  lachrymal  demonstration  followed. 
No  wonder,  then,  that  the  boys  called  him  a  baby. 

The  teachers  said  he  was  backward;  the  neigh- 
bors said  he  was  beyond  his  years;  the  boys  said 
he  was  a  baby ;  Binet  tests  said  he  was  a  year  above 
his  age;  the  father  said  he  was  smart;  the  sister 
said  he  was  stupid;  the  mother  folded  her  hands, 
shook  her  head  resignedly  and  said  nothing.  The 
probable  truth  of  the  matter  was  that  Mercer  was 
naturally  bright,  considerably  spoiled,  retarded  in 
some  matters,  advanced  in  others,  taught  by  his 
father  one  way,  by  his  sister  another,  in  school 
another,  and  on  the  whole,  directed  by  nobody.  He 
followed  his  own  interests  and  in  the  conflict  of 
teachers  managed  to  have  his  own  way.  He  needed 
one  and  only  one  good  teacher  and  that  should  have 
been  his  mother. 


IN   THE    HOME  145 

Treatments. — Treatments  for  backwardness 
are  general  or  constitutional,  and  particular  or  spe- 
cific. In  the  first  class  the  treatments  aiTect  the 
whole  body  and  in  the  second  they  are  applied  to 
particular  organs  for  specific  diseases.  The  latter 
treatments  may  be  subdivided  into  surgical  and  med- 
ical. A  constitutional  treatment  aims  to  build  up  the 
whole  system  by  outdoor  life,  by  plenty  of  fresh  air, 
good  food,  sleep  and  play.  What  these  will  do  in 
some  cases  of  backwardness  caused  by  neglect  or 
ill  treatment  almost  reaches  the  marvelous.  It  will 
be  practically  impossible  in  much  of  this  discussion 
to  keep  treatment  and  training  separate;  nor  is  it 
necessary  or  desirable  to  separate  them.  They 
merge  naturally  into  cause  and  effect  without  ef- 
fort on  the  part  of  the  parent.  Take  this  case  as  an 
example. 

Cyrene  was  six  years  old  when  she  was  carried 
to  a  clinic  in  the  arms  of  a  nurse.  She  could 
neither  walk  nor  talk,  but  crept  about  the  floor  and 
babbled  like  an  infant.  She  had  been  picked  up  in 
the  slums  by  a  charity  worker.  Her  home  was  a 
room  in  a  tenement.  Her  mother  had  to  work 
daily.  Cyrene  stayed  at  home  much  of  the  time  by 
herself  and  was  often  under  the  influence  of  drugs. 
Neglect,  dirt,  starvation,  accidents,  soporific  drugs, 
disease  inherited  and  acquired,  had  all  done  their 
part  to  stunt  the  mind  of  this  child  almost  com- 
pletely and  her  body  very  materially. 

She  was  taken  out  of  her  home  and  placed  in  a 


146  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

sanatorium  at  the  seashore  for  six  weeks.  There 
she  was  given  for  the  first  time  in  her  Hfe  the  care 
and  the  nourishment  fit  for  a  human  being.  The 
treatment  she  received  was  not  exceptional  and 
pecuHar  treatment,  but  just  such  treatment  as  any- 
modern  institution  would  give.  She  was  bathed 
daily,  dressed  in  clean  clothes,  slept  long  hours  in 
a  bed  white  and  sweet  as  soap  and  water,  sunshine 
and  sea-air  could  make  it;  played  all  day  on  a 
veranda  or  out  in  the  sea  sand;  and  ate  plenty  of 
good,  plain,  wholesome,  well-cooked  food.  In  short 
she  lived  the  entirely  healthful  life  of  a  young 
animal. 

In  six  weeks,  what  a  change!  I  do  not  know 
how  many  pounds  she  gained  in  weight,  nor  how 
many  inches  she  grew  in  height.  Neither  of  those 
additions  was  the  wonderful  part.  The  change  in 
her  mental  development  without  one  single  con- 
scious effort  at  special  training  by  her  nurses,  was 
the  marvel.  She  learned  to  walk  and  to  talk,  not 
indeed  as  well  as  a  normal  six-year-old,  but  won- 
derfully well  for  one  so  recently  an  infant.  She 
seemed  to  have  grown  three  years  in  a  few  weeks 
and  since  that  time  has  continued  to  improve  though 
not  so  rapidly. 

Cyrene's  advance  throws  into  bold  relief  what 
IS  called  constitutional  treatment.  It  shows  both 
by  their  presence  and  their  absence  what  large  and 
important  factors  in  mental  growth  are  the  com- 
mon daily  necessities  of  life.     For  her  condition, 


JN   THE   HOME  147 

while  remarkable  because  it  is  unusual,  is  not  there- 
fore an  exception  to  the  effect  of  hygienic  living 
on  children  in  general.  Her  experience  only  iso- 
lates and  therefore  presents  vividly  and  clearly  the 
factors  of  physical  and  mental  growth  usually  hid- 
den like  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere,  by  their 
well-nigh  universal  presence. 

Diets  for  Children. — Backward  children  do 
not  usually  require  a  diet  different  from  that  of 
other  children.  However,  as  many  of  them  suffer 
from  insufficient  and  improper  eating,  it  seems  well 
to  make  a  few  notes  on  this  little  understood  sub- 
ject. For  convenience,  we  will  treat  home-feeding 
and  school- feeding  together.  Preparing  food  and 
eating  can  be  made  as  highly  educational  for  the 
mind  as  beneficial  for  the  body.  Buying,  cooking, 
setting  the  table,  eating,  washing  dishes,  cleaning 
the  teeth, — ^how  many  and  how  varied  are  the  les- 
sons grouped  about  this  most  ancient,  necessary  and 
civilizing  process  of  food-getting!  Arithmetic, 
chemistry,  physics,  physiology,  anatomy,  hygiene, 
ethics,  sociology,  geography,  economics,  all  these 
so  abstract  subjects  are  directly  connected  with 
plain  cooking  and  refined  eating;  while  reading, 
writing,  spelling,  grammar,  poetry  and  art  may  be 
introduced  without  much  effort.  Worship  has  been 
connected  with  all  its  processes  from  times  imme- 
morial. To  get  food  is  the  chief  struggle  of  nearly 
ninety  per  cent,  of  all  Americans  and  to  secure  the 
dearest  food  the  ideal  of  nearly  all.    Out  of  such 


148  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

an  animal  struggle  and  such  a  sensuous  ideal  come 
so  much  of  the  greed,  the  passions  and  the  crimes 
of  our  civilization.  Food,  healthy  and  healthful, 
fair-priced  and  sufficient,  well-cooked  and  well-di- 
gested is  the  solution  of  many  problems  within  the 
schoolroom,  the  home  and  the  great  world  outside. 
Foo.ds,  all  foods,  yield  energy.  They  strengthen 
muscles  and  they  heat  the  body.  They  furnish  the 
fire  and  steam  to  the  human  machine,  and  do  some- 
thing else  no  man-made  machine  ever  dreams  of 
doing,  namely,  they  repair  the  machine  itself. 
Though  all  yield  energy,  some  foods  are  especially 
repairing  or  tissue-building  agents.  These  are 
called  proteins  and  make  up  chiefly  the  white  of 
eggs,  the  curds  of  milk,  lean  meat,  parts  of  wheat, 
etc.  Another  group  compose  the  well-known  fat 
family,  found  in  fat-meat,  butter,  olive  oil,  nuts, 
corn,  wheat,  etc.  Fat,  as  everybody  knows,  is 
stored  in  the  body  for  warmth  and  energy.  It  does 
not  build  tissues  like  bones  and  muscles.  Another 
energy-giving  food  are  the  carbohydrates,  like 
sugar,  starch,  etc.  They  are  changed  into  fats  in 
the  body.  These  three,  proteins,  fats  and  carbo- 
hydrates are  the  great  foods  of  the  body  by  which 
it  lives,  moves  and  has  its  being.  From  the  food 
purchased  in  the  market  it  selects  by  its  own  mys- 
terious processes  chiefly  these  three  ingredients  and 
rejects  most  of  the  rest.  So  when  the  housewife 
buys  a  lobster  with  its  shell,  its  water,  its  mineral 
matter,  and  its  protein,  fat  and  carbohydrates,  in 


IN   THE   HOME  149 

the  last  three  ingredients  the  body  uses  only  about 
one-sixteenth  of  the  whole  lobster  and  about  fifteen- 
sixteenths  is  thrown  away  in  shell  and  water.  Lob- 
sters are  not  only  dear  in  first  cost,  but  terribly  dear 
in  last  cost.  When  a  man  pays  a  dollar  and  a  half 
a  pound  for  one  alive  he  really  pays  one  dollar  and 
a  half  an  ounce,  or  twenty-four  dollars  a  pound  for 
the  lobster  he  really  gets.  Again  we  see  that  all 
food  is  not  food;  and  to  find  how  much  food  a 
child  ought  to  have  we  must  figure  on  actual,  or 
available  food. 

To  find  out  how  much  a  girl  or  boy  ought  to 
eat  daily  we  make  comparisons  with  a  man  doing 
moderate  muscular  work  which  is  similar  in  effect 
to  the  play  of  an  ordinary  child.  The  standard  of 
measurement  for  tissue  building  is  the  weight  of 
protein  consumed  daily,  and  for  energy-giving  food 
the  amount  of  heat  the  food  will  develop  measured 
by  the  calory.  The  calory  is  the  amount  of  heat  re- 
quired to  raise  the  temperature  of  one  kilogram  of 
water  one  degree  centigrade;  or  one  pound  of  water 
four  degrees  Fahrenheit  nearly;  or,  if  the  heat 
should  be  turned  into  mechanical  power,  one  calory 
would  raise  one  ton  nearly  one  and  fifty-four  hun- 
dredths feet. 

As  a  rough  average  diet  for  a  child  we  can  take 
the  amounts  suitable  for  a  child  of  ten  years  and 
vary  the  diet  by  increasing  the  amounts  for  other 
children  up  to  fourteen  years,  but  not  beyond,  and 
diminishing  them  for  children  down  to  seven  years, 


150  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

thus  covering  those  of  school  age.  The  average 
daily  ration  for  a  ten-year-old  weighing  twenty- 
eight  kilograms  (about  sixty  pounds)  lies,  in  round 
numbers,  between  three  hundred  to  three  hundred 
fifty  grams*  of  actual  or  available  food  after  waste 
is  deducted,  made  up  as  follows:  proteids,  sixty 
grams;  carbohydrates,  two  hundred  fifty  grams; 
and  fats,  forty-five  grams;  giving  altogether  about 
sixteen  hundred  calories  of  fuel  or  heat  value.  A 
little  later  we  will  show  how  the  calories  are  cal- 
culated from  the  weight. 

For  more  accurate  measurements  we  may  con- 
struct a  simple  table  as  follows  using  as  a  standard 
the  daily  rations  needed  by  a  man  doing  moderate 
muscular  work  who  requires  about  twenty- four  hun- 
dredths pounds  of  protein  and  about  three  thousand 
fifty  calories  of  heat  besides. 

Calories  (Car- 
Protein  bohydrates 
Person                                 Percent.       (Lbs.)  and  fats) 
Man   at   moderate   muscular 

work   100               0.24  3050 

Boy  15  to  16  years 90               0.22  2745 

Boy  13  to  14  years  >                   o^               ^.g  ^440 

Girl  15  to  16  years  J ^"               "'^  "^^^ 

arVl^aril  years! ^0  0.15  2155 

^^lolllllZl] 60  0.14  1830 

Child  6  to  9  years 50  0.12  1525 

Child  2  to  5  years 40  0.96  1220 

Child  under  2  years 30  0.72  915 

♦One  gram,  metric  system,  equals  15.432  grains  avoirdupois 
weight.    One  kilogram  equals  2.2  pounds  nearly. 


IN   THE   HOME  151 

After  the  question  as  to  how  much  a  child  should 
eat  daily  comes  the  question  of  what  he  shall  eat. 
First  let  us  show  the  method  of  answering*  that  for 
individuals;  then  for  a  typical  class.  A  child  of 
known  age  should  be  weighed  and  measured,  two 
operations  easily  performed  by  anybody,  and  his 
blood  tested  by  a  physician.  Then  his  diet  should 
be  arranged  to  suit  his  needs.  If  he  is  thin,  carbo- 
hydrates and  fats  should  dominate  in  his  rations. 
If  he  is  fat  and  flabby,  proteins  should  dominate. 
The  typical  dietary  given  above  for  a  ten-year-old 
body  may  be  used  for  an  average  and  deviations 
from  it  arranged.  For  calculating  the  calories 
from  the  weights  the  following  table  may  be  used. 

TABLE  II 

Substance  Calories  per  gram  Calories  per  pound 

Protein    4  1820 

Carbohydrates   4  1820 

Fats 9  4040 

For  classes  the  procedure  is  the  same  for  each 
individual.  Then  instead  of  fitting  a  ration  to  each 
child  an  average  dietary  is  made  up  for  the  whole 
class.  To  illustrate  we  will  use  an  actual  special 
class  in  a  summer  school.  One  meal  a  day  was 
given  and,  since  it  was  the  noonday  meal  it  was 
calculated  to  furnish  one-half  the  required  daily 
food.  As  the  weather  was  warm  the  menus  were 
fitted  to  that  condition,  and  ice-cream  appears  daily, 


152  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

both  for  its  cooling  effects  and  its  allurement  to 
pupils  inclined  to  play  truant  especially  from  a 
school  held  during  regular  vacation  time.  Ten 
menus  were  arranged  and  used  through  twenty- 
seven  days  for  nineteen  children  as  given  below. 


Materials  for  each  child  Proteid  Fat       Carbohydrate 

for  each  meal  (grrams)       (grams)        (grams)  Calories 

1.  Bread  and  milk,  double 

portion,  ice-cream   ....  31.16        37.00        117.04        769.00 

2.  Bread,  roast  beef,  milk, 

ice-cream 32.4         45.38         73.12        774.00 

3.  Jam      sandwich,      rice, 

milk,  ice-cream 26.38        36.95        149.29        885.00 

4.  Hamburg  steak,  rice, 
bread  and  butter,  milk, 

ice-cream 35.16        46.13        118.74        951.00 

5.  Macaroni  and  cheese, 
bread  and  butter,  milk, 

ice-cream 30.51        65.05        117.31       1019.00 

6.  Shredded  wheat  with 
sugar  and  milk,  bread 
and  butter,  prunes  and 

ice-cream 20.85        37.32        147.26       904.00 

7.  Lettuce  sandwich,  with 
dressing,  bread  and 
butter,  milk  and  ice- 
cream   23.17       37.60       105.47       745.00 

8.  Scrambled  eggs  and  ba- 
con, bread  and  butter, 

milk  and  ice-cream....  31.79        72.72  74.08        866.26 

9.  Creamed  beef,  bread 
and    butter,    milk    and 

ice-cream 33.64       50.67         78.48        798.00 

10.    Creamed    beef,    baked 
potato,  bread  and  but- 
ter, milk  and  ice-cream  36,33        50.76        100.51        897.00 
Total  average  per  portion:    proteid,  28;  fat,  45;  carbohy- 
drate, 115;  calories,  881. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  fat  is  very  high,  that  the 
average  per  portion  is  equal  to  the  total  standard 
daily  portion.     The   fat   is  mostly  derived   from 


IN   THE   HOME  153 

milk  and  butter,  which  is  the  most  wholesome  form 
for  children.  The  children  whose  home  diet  was 
most  lacking  in  fat  were  watched  carefully  and  it 
was  seen  that  they  got  more  butter  than  the  others. 
Several  learned  to  eat  butter  for  the  first  time. 
Again,  the  values  given  above  took  no  account  of 
waste.  They  are  based  on  the  assumption  that  all 
of  the  food  served  was  eaten  every  day  which,  of 
course,  was  not  strictly  true,  a  fair  amount  being 
lost  in  changing  from  platter  to  plate. 

Surgical  Treatment  for  Particular  Diseases. — 
Surgical  operations  are  so  clearly  procedures  of 
medical  men,  so  technical  in  character  and  so  remote 
from  the  accomplishments  of  ordinary  people  that 
it  seems  almost  a  waste  of  time  to  consider  them 
here.  Yet  everybody  recognizes  instantly  what  a 
close  connection  the  parent  has  with  the  inception 
of  surgical  operations  on  children.  The  surgeon 
can  not  take  the  initiative.  Patients  must  be 
brought  to  him.  Here  again,  as  in  medical  cases, 
an  early  operation  may  save  untold  trouble.  Ad- 
enoids, enlarged  tonsils,  earache  and  toothache 
have  such  a  direct  bearing  on  a  child's  behavior 
that  the  parent  often  discovers  these  defects  first. 
If  parents  understood  the  same  matters  much  of 
their  prejudice  would  also  disappear.  It  seems  ap- 
propriate, therefore,  to  touch  very  briefly  and  pop- 
ularly on  a  few  of  the  commoner  anatomical  ills 
of  backward  children  where  operations  may  help 
the  permanently  backward  and  very  frequently  cure 


154  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

the  temporarily  backward.     As  adenoids  are  com- 
mon we  will  begin  with  them. 

Though  adenoids  are  absorbed  during  ad- 
olescence, by  that  time  all  the  mischief  has  been  done 
and  the  marks  remain  for  life  or  must  be  removed 
by  long  and  tedious  treatment.  Therefore  re- 
moval of  adenoids  is  counseled  by  nearly  all  ex- 
perts. This  becomes  imperative  when  the  following 
symptoms  appear : 

1.  Open  mouth,  especially  during  sleep,  teeth 
coming  crooked,  disturbed  sleep,  irritable  humor, 
lack  of  attention,  nasal  voice,  flat-chest  and  constant 
lassitude. 

2.  Continual  colds,  nasal  discharge,  tendency  to 
sore  throats,  tonsilitis  and  bronchitis. 

3.  Earache  and  partial  deafness  or  hard-hearing. 

4.  Nervous  symptoms  like  bed-wetting,  stam- 
mering, St.  Vitus'  dance,  headaches,  night-terrors, 
etc. 

The  Teeth. — Dental  defects  are  many  and  va- 
rious. Tartar  is  the  commonest,  decaying  teeth  the 
next,  and  crooked  teeth  the  next.  From  one  or 
all  of  these  troubles,  according  to  an  estimate  based 
on  an  investigation  of  New  York  City  schools, 
half  the  pupils  in  America,  or  nine  million  little 
souls,  suffer  the  agony  of  horses  under  the  whip 
pulling  with  raw  shoulders  against  a  collar  hard  as 
iron.  Happily  for  both  children  and  horses,  hu- 
manitarians have  already  cared  for  the  horses  and 
are  diligently  considering  the  children.     Many  of 


IN   THE   HOME  155 

the  later  dental  evils  come  from  the  neglect  of  the 
apparently  harmless  though  disfiguring  tartar.  The 
true  nature  of  this  insidious  growth  is  seen  when  it 
is  known  that  tartar  is  a  bacterial  growth,  a  weed- 
patch  in  a  child's  mouth  which  generally  sends  with 
every  swallow  of  food  millions  of  its  off-scourings 
into  the  child's  stomach.  In  that  congenial  soil  they 
thrive,  multiply  rapidly  and  devour  the  food  in- 
tended for  the  tissues  of  the  child's  body.  Un- 
willingly he  has  become  the  host  of  an  innumerable 
company  of  insolent  guests  who  devour  his  dainties, 
leaving  him  only  the  scraps  at  the  second  table. 
Tartar,  any  tartar,  is  therefore  serious  and  espe- 
cially the  kind  that  sometimes  clings  closely  around 
the  gums  of  even  the  most  fastidious  tooth-wash- 
ers, and  gradually  drives  back  the  gums  until  the 
teeth  loosen  in  their  sockets.  Tartar,  too,  is  a  fore- 
runner of  decay,  another  germ  disease  worse  in  its 
malnutritional  effect  than  simple  tartar,  and  infi- 
nitely more  painful  and  deterring  to  any  application 
of  the  mind.  Happily  that  olden-time,  well-known 
institution,  the  puffed  cheek,  the  sobbing  child, 
his  handkerchief  pressed  to  his  aching  jaw,  the 
consoling  mother  and  the  sympathizing  group  of 
playmates,  has  almost  disappeared  from  child-life 
like  the  lost  art  of  patching,  or  else  lingers  only  in 
out-of-the-way  country  places.  Or,  at  least,  it  ought 
to  be;  for  no  longer  in  a  land  of  dentists  is  tooth- 
ache a  visitation  of  Providence  to  be  subdued  with 
hartshorn  or  laudanum.    Yet  It  is  said  that  only  a 


156  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

few  years  ago,  in  a  school  largely  attended  by  for- 
eign children,  some  were  discovered  with  many 
teeth  missing,  a  few  with  only  three  teeth  left,  and 
one  or  two  with  no  teeth  left^ 

All  decayed  teeth  should  be  filled,  if  possible;  or 
drawn,  if  the  dentist  advises  it.  Likewise  impacted 
teeth  due  to  the  second  teeth's  coming  in  and  press- 
ing upon  the  roots  of  the  first  set,  should  receive 
immediate  attention  as  they  lead  to  the  most  aggra- 
vated forms  of  mischief  and  sometimes  to  moral 
delinquency.  Crooked  teeth,  and  indeed  the  whole 
jaw,  can  be  straightened.  Such  work  should  be 
done  as  early  as  possible  after  the  permanent  teeth 
are  cut;  for  the  younger  the  child  the  more  easily 
and  quickly  the  jaws  change  their  shape.  This  form 
of  surgery  is  bloodless  and  though  irritating  and  pos- 
sibly painful,  it  is  infinitely  less  so  than  years  of  the 
inconvenience,  poor  mastication,  bad  articulation  and 
ugliness  occasioned  by  a  mouth  full  of  ill-shaped,  in- 
human-looking teeth  only  partially  hidden  by  an 
equally  repulsive  mouth.  Because  of  such  easily 
corrected  deformities  what  unexplainable  acts  and 
habits  of  behavior  must  be  attributed  to  the  irrita- 
tion and  embarrassment  suffered  by  adolescent  boys 
and  girls  only  an  omniscient  judgment  day  will  re- 
veal. Certainly,  besides  probable  mental  and  moral 
qualities,  a  good,  strong,  clean,  white,  accurately 
adjusted  set  of  teeth  adds  much  to  the  physical 
health,  appearance  and  tone  of  any  person.    In  this 


IN   THE   HOME  157 

day  of  dentists  and  tooth-brushes  every  child  should 
have  good  teeth. 

Other  bad  companions  come  trooping  in  with  ad- 
enoids. Of  course,  enlarged  tonsils  are  common  ac- 
companiments. They  are  located  on  each  side  of  the 
throat,  and  can  be  seen  from  the  inside  when  the 
mouth  is  open.  Located  more  remotely  from  en- 
larged tonsils  and  adenoids,  yet  frequently  accom- 
panying them,  is  earache,  forming  with  toothache, 
the  twin-terrors  of  childish  days  and  nights.  The 
pathological  relation  between  adenoids  and  earache 
is  visibly  seen  in  the  eustachian  tube,  a  small  canal 
running  from  the  throat,  through  which  the  germs, 
already  having  found  a  prolific  soil  in  the  fevered 
over-blooded  throat,  are  forced  to  another  spot  ideal 
for  colonizing  in  the  middle-ear.  Spraying  the  throat 
with  salt-water  or  weak  germicides  and  consequent 
coughing  or  violently  blowing  the  nose  assists  the 
germs  in  the  passage  to  their  safe  seclusion  in  the 
middle  chamber  of  the  ear,  where  no  antiseptic  can 
reach  them  until  they  have  perforated  the  drum- 
head, or  tympanum,  and  a  running  ear  relieves  the 
intense  pain  of  the  preceding  prosperous  growth  of 
the  germs  known  to  sufiferers  as  earache.  If  the 
earache  is  recurrent  and  is  permitted  to  proceed  un- 
restricted or  is  aided  by  home-made  applications,  the 
hearing  may  be  entirely  and  permanently  destroyed. 
So  serious  is  it  that  earache  should  always  have  the 
prompt  attention  of  a  specialist. 


158  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

Arising  alike  in  the  home  and  schoolroom  is  the 
problem  of  home-treatment  and  professional  treat- 
ment of  physical  ailments.  At  home  it  expresses 
itself  in,  ''Shall  we  send  for  the  doctor?"*  and  in 
school,  "Shall  we  send  him  to  the  medical  in- 
spector?" The  answer  obviously  depends  on  the 
nature  of  the  ailment;  and  the  discovery  of  that 
on  the  parent's  ability  to  distinguish  simple  and 
unimportant  affections  from  serious  ones.  How 
much  of  this  skill  can  be  and  should  be  imparted  to 
laymen  may  be  a  question ;  but  assuredly  those  who 
are  charged  with  the  welfare  of  little  people  ought 
at  least  to  know  the  characteristic  symptoms  of 
common  contagious  diseases. 

Colds,  for  example,  are  either  simple  ailments  or 
the  forerunners  of  serious  diseases.  If  a  cold  is 
accompanied  with  continually  weeping  eyes,  a  per- 
sistent avoidance  of  light,  it  likely  presages  measles; 
if  accompanied  with  extremely  high  fever,  hard  dry 
cough  and  soreness  all  over  the  body,  it  means 
grippe;  if  a  sudden  discharge  in  thick  bloody  shreds 
appears  from  the  nose,  dread  diphtheria  is  indicated. 
If  the  cold  is  accompanied  by  a  paroxysmal  cough 
rising  to  a  whoop,  the  signal  is  almost  certain  for 
whooping-cough.  Colds  and  coughs  also  accompany 
adenoids.  In  general  any  persistent  cold,  or  habitual 
colds  and  coughs  are  danger-signals  and  should  call 
for  investigation  and  treatment. 

♦  For  a  simple  treatment  of  this  whole  subject  see  When  to 
Send  for  the  Doctor,  Lippert  &  Holmes,  Lippincott  Company, 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 


IN   THE   HOME  159 

Sore  throats  are  common  and  may  mean  much 
or  little.  A  highly  inflamed  throat  with  patches 
is  not  necessarily  dangerous.  If  vomiting  comes 
on  with  high  fever,  scarlet  fever  is  signalized. 
Swollen  glands  in  the  neck  behind  the  jaw  and  a 
gray  white  ''film''  inside  the  throat  mean  diphtheria. 
If  the  tonsils  are  swollen  and  studded  over  with  nu- 
merous yellow  spots  tonsilitis  is  coming  on.  If  the 
tonsils  are  very  red  and  large,  so  large  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  open  the  mouth,  quinsy  must  be  suspected. 

Headaches  are  always  serious  because  they  inter- 
fere with  a  child's  study  and  because  they  are  symp- 
toms of  other  perhaps  dangerous  conditions  in  the 
child's  body  or  his  environment.  Any  teacher  can 
discover  these  causes  by  observation,  questioning, 
and  experimenting  with  foods,  ventilation,  light, 
play  and  naps  in  school. 

Investigations  in  one  school  system  showed  that 
children  with  skin  diseases  were  more  often  back- 
ward than  those  with  poor  eyesight.  Hence,  the 
discovery  and  treatment  of  skin  affections  impinges 
closely  on  scholastic  duties.  One  hundred  years 
ago  all  skin  diseases  were  supposed  to  come  from 
**bad  blood."  Now  we  know  that  many  are  due 
to  germs  securing  entrance  through  the  pores  of 
the  skin.  If  skin  eruptions  come  in  the  form  of 
small  red  pimples  tending  to  run  together,  growing 
moist  and  itching  intensely,  eczema  is  the  disease. 
If  the  irritation  is  confined  to  the  head,  suspect 
head  lice.    If  it  comes  between  the  fingers  or  toes, 


160  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

and  if  a  brown-black,  zigzag  line  from  an  eighth  to 
a  half  inch  long  appears,  send  the  child  away  im- 
mediately before  it  communicates  the  itch  to  others. 
Ringworm,  another  contagious  skin  trouble,  is  early 
known  by  the  circular  direction  of  the  eruption. 
Scaling  of  the  skin  may  mean  simple  dandruff,  if 
from  the  hair,  or  eczema,  or  the  result  of  measles, 
or  of  scarlet  fever.  The  last  is  especially  dangerous. 
Chicken-pox  usually  comes  on  without  much  warn- 
ing. The  small,  rose-colored  pimples  turn  to  blis- 
ters in  four  hours'  time,  so  the  disease,  a  very  con- 
tagious one,  develops  often  under  the  teacher's 
eyes.  Pinkeye  is  hardly  a  skin  disease,  but  reddens 
and  swells  the  eyelids  and  colors  the  eyeball  a 
pinkish  red.  It  runs  through  a  school  like  wildfire, 
and  like  all  the  other  contagious  diseases,  should  be 
detected  as  early  as  possible  and  the  sufferers  sent 
immediately  to  the  school  doctor.  These  most  com- 
mon diseases  will  serve  to  illustrate  the  need  and 
kind  of  knowledge  teachers  and  parents  should  have 
to  protect  their  children  from  contagion  and  useless 
suffering. 

Beyond  these  suggestive  treatments  it  does  not 
seem  necessary  to  go.  The  treatment  of  earache 
and  adjustment  of  eye-glasses  are  so  common  and 
the  procedure  so  well  known  that  they  do  not  require 
special  consideration.  From  this  discussion  it  is 
hoped  that  the  teacher  and  parent  will  derive  the 
general  principle  that  commands  all  persons  con- 
cerned with  children  never  to  attribute  their  back- 


IN   THE   HOME  161 

wardness  or  badness  to  wilfulness,  but  always  in 
the  most  persistent,  aggravated  and  aggravating 
cases,  to  believe  in  and  to  search  unremittingly  for 
some  physical  defect  in  the  child  or  outside  of 
him.  If  that,  when  found,  is  removable,  the  child 
can  be  cured.  If  not,  he  can  not  be  cured.  In 
either  case  it  is  not  his  fault.  And  here,  for  the 
sake  of  millions  of  misunderstood  children  I  must 
yield  to  the  temptation  and  set  down  this  universal 
negative:  No  child  is  ever  a  bad  or  a  backward 
child  through  his  own  fault. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  CLINICAL  DIAGNOSIS  OF  BACKWARD  CHILDREN 

IN  all  the  previous  chapters  of  this  book  we  have 
proceeded  inductively  in  the  study  of  backward 
children.  We  have  brought  forward  concrete  cases 
to  illustrate  types  and  to  show  how  these  children 
were  diagnosed  and  treated.  The  cases  are  taken 
from  the  common  experience  of  the  schoolroom 
and  the  home  and  were  chosen  because  of  their 
striking  features  which  would  command  attention, 
and  which  would  set  forth  underlying  principles 
and  in  such  relief  that  they  could  be  grasped  and 
applied  to  other  similar  but  milder  cases  of  the  same 
types.  Statistical  studies,  tables,  means  and  aver- 
ages, on  which  all  true  and  exhaustive  scientific 
studies  of  such  matters  must  ultimately  rest,  might 
have  been  given.  For  parents  and  teachers,  how- 
ever, the  ultimate  is  not  a  statistical  table,  but  the 
real  individual;  not  an  average,  but  a  human  being 
to  be  saved;  not  a  method  applying  on  the  whole, 
but  a  definite  process  to  be  used  once,  and  only 
once,  to  be  rejected  if  it  fails,  and  discarded  when 
it  succeeds.  Of  necessity,  such  a  treatment  of  the 
subject  did  not  permit  the  erection  of  a  close  and 

162 


JHE   CLINICAL   DIAGNOSIS'       163 

carefully  articulated  system  of  etiology,  diagnosis, 
classification,  treatment  and  training.  It  is  there  in 
germ,  but  is  merely  suggested  and  appears  through 
the  illustrations.  We  will  now  turn  to  a  more 
detailed  description  of  the  clinical  diagnosis. 

The  Process  as  a  Whole. — ^The  process  of 
diagnosing  backward  children  begins  with  casual, 
crude  and  rough  approximations  made  by  un- 
skilled observers,  and  moves  on  toward  sys- 
tematic, precise,  scientific  measurements  made  by 
experts.  No  one  should  be  confused  by  the  fact 
that  several  organizations  and  many  subordinate 
processes  are  described.  At  bottom,  from  the  casual 
opinion  of  neighbors  to  the  seasoned  judgment  of 
an  expert,  all  of  them  rest  on  the  problem  of  the 
child's  social  fitness  or  unfitness.  Can  he  ever 
support  himself  by  his  own  efforts  in  society  at 
large?  is  the  fundamental  question.  It  is  involved 
in  the  definition  of  feeble-mindedness,  and  for  the 
teacher  and  for  others  responsible  for  the  unfor- 
tunate, it  is  the  question  paramount.  If  by  any 
means  he  can  be  made  self-supporting,  though  he 
may  never  read  or  write,  then  he  has  the  same 
right  to  schooling  as  any  other  child  who  is  fitted 
in  public  school  for  citizenship.  If  he  never  can 
become  self-supporting  in  society  at  large,  then  all 
his  years  of  public  school  learning  are  futile,  a 
waste  and  worse  than  a  waste,  robbing  him  of  his 
opportunities  to  develop  his  manual  and  industrial 
faculties  for  life  in  an  institution  and  stealing  time 


164'  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

from  normal  children  who  will  become  self-sup- 
porting. Social  fitness  is  the  one  requisite;  and  in 
judging  this  qualification  the  observations  and 
opinions  of  common  people  and  especially  the  tacit 
attitude  of  the  child's  peers  on  the  playground, 
have  more  weight  than  would  at  first  appear  to  one 
who  thinks  this  matter  wholly  an  academic  and 
technical  one. 

This  can  also  be  seen  from  the  definition  of  feeble- 
mindedness. The  Royal  College  of  Physicians 
of  London  define  it  as  ''a  state  of  mental  de- 
I  feet  from  birth,  or  from  an  early  age,  due  to  in- 
complete cerebral  development,  in  consequence  of 
which  the  person  affected  is  unable  to  perform  his 
duties  as  a  member  of  society  in  the  position  of  life 
to  which  he  is  born."  It  will  be  noted  that  there 
is  a  mental  defect  and  that  it  is  incurable,  and  that 
it  is  marked  enough  to  prevent  the  sufferer  from 
making  his  living  in  ordinary  society.  These  two 
items  mark  the  essentials  of  amentia,  or  feeble-mind- 
edness. 

Let  us  now  take  a  bird's-eye  view  of  our  whole 
problem.  Here  he  is  before  us — a  backward  boy. 
That  much  we  know  by  the  judgment  of  parents, 
neighbors,  friends  and  school  grading.  Let  us  say 
he  is  ten  years  old  and  in  the  second  grade.  What  is 
our  task?  First,  we  must  diagnose  our  case.  Sec- 
ond, we  must  apply  the  proper  treatment.  That  is, 
to  put  the  matter  in  pedagogical  terms,  we  must 
find  out  what  kind  of  backward  boy  we  have  and 


THE   CLINICAL   DIAGNOSIS        165 

then  we  must  develop  him  to  his  fullest  capacity. 
More  specifically  we  must  first  and  fundamentally 
determine  whether  he  is  temporarily  backward  and 
will  under  right  training  catch  up  with  his  fellows 
in  the  race  of  life,  or  whether  he  is  permanently 
backward  and  can  grow  only  so  far  in  his  mental  ca- 
pacity and  then  will  stop. 

What  We  Measure  in  Classifying  Backward 
Children. — Those  two  words  ^'mental  capacity'' 
need  a  little  more  consideration.  They  bring  up  the 
problem  of  just  what  we  are  trying  to  determine. 
Is  it  the  child's  present  intellectual  attainments,  his 
knowledge  of  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic?  Not 
primarily.  Sometimes  he  is  too  young  to  do  any  of 
these  and  yet  is  backward.  Anyhow  the  school  ex- 
aminations would  settle  that.  Is  it  his  present  men- 
tal capacity — his  ability  to  learn  reading,  writing 
and  arithmetic?  Binet  says  it  is,  but  immediately 
recognizes  the  fact  that  such  a  quality  is  changeable 
from  year  to  year  and  hence  can  not  in  itself  give  a 
final  basis  for  calling  any  child  permanently  re- 
tarded. Neither  can  it  furnish  a  basis  for  a  pro- 
longed course  of  training.  No,  the  quality  we  are 
seeking  to  measure  in  this  ten-year-old  boy  is  neither 
present  intellectual  attainments  in  themselves  and 
by  themselves ;  nor  present  mental  capacities  in  them- 
selves and  by  themselves.  It  is  something  far  more 
difficult  and  subtle,  requiring  not  only  skill  and  fine 
judgment  in  the  examiner,  but  also  the  gift  of 
prophecy  based  on  long  and  wide  experience.    We 


166  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

are  seeking  something  analogous  to  the  latent  forces 
residing  in  an  acorn.  We  are  trying  to  analyze  the 
acorn,  to  determine  its  powers,  real  and  potential, 
and  to  predict,  if  it  is  placed  in  a  suitable  soil  in  a 
salubrious  climate,  what  kind  of  oak  it  will  be  when 
full-grown.  That  is  what  we  are  trying  to  deter- 
mine in  our  ten-year-old  backward  boy;  not  alone 
how  backward  he  is,  not  alone  his  reading,  writ- 
ing and  mathematics,  not  alone  his  present  physical 
and  mental  powers  but  his  present  potentialities. 
Not  "What  is  he  now?"  but  "What  will  he  be  at 
puberty  when  all  his  mental  faculties  have  reached 
their  maturity?"  is  the  primal  and  unwavering  ques- 
tion we  must  keep  before  our  minds.  All  we  do  and 
all  we  ask  must  unfalteringly  be  directed  toward 
that  one  moment.  Nor  should  any  favorable  or 
unfavorable  item  swerve  our  judgment  unduly  from 
its  goal.  The  degree  of  backwardness,  for  example, 
must  not  betray  us  into  a  hasty  judgment.  Here  on 
the  table  is  a  baby,  unable  to  walk  or  talk,  cooing  ex- 
citably over  some  blocks,  so  young  psychically  that 
she  is  not  free  from  the  baby  grasping-reflex  and 
will  close  her  hand  involuntarily  over  my  fingers 
placed  in  her  palms.  Though  she  screams  to  seize 
the  blocks  before  her  eyes  she  can  not  overcome  the 
instinct  to  close  her  fingers  and  so  holds  on  tightly 
and  keeps  on  screaming.  She  is  psychically  less 
than  a  year  old ;  yet  she  is  past  her  sixth  birthday. 
Is  she  permanently  retarded?  Specialists  hesitated 
to  say  so  and  hesitated  a  year  after  she  was  under 


/ 


THE    CLINICAL   DIAGNOSIS         167 

their  close  observation.  In  six  weeks  she  learned 
to  walk  and  to  talk  and  her  progress  has  remained 
rapid.  What  will  she  be  at  thirteen  or  fourteen? 
Such  a  case  is  exceptional  and  I  cite  it  to  bring  out 
the  point.  On  the  other  hand,  here  is  a  low-grade 
idiot  ten  years  old.  The  prognosis  or  prophecy  is 
easy.  Still  another  boy  is  fifteen,  past  puberty,  and 
his  attainments  under  the  best  conditions  are  those 
of  a  middle-grade  imbecile.  Again  the  diagnosis 
is  easy.  No  prediction  is  involved.  He  is  now  what 
he  always  will  be.  His  potentialities  have  all  become 
actualized.    He  is  a  middle-grade  imbecile. 

The  Oral  Examination. — The  services  of  a 
technically  trained  expert  are  not  required  to  make 
the  preliminary  survey  or  oral  examination  of  the 
case.  It  consists  of  a  series  of  observations,  and  a 
series  of  questions  and  answers.  The  questions 
should  seek  to  uncover  the  causes  of  backwardness 
first,  by  covering  the  child's  pedagogical  history; 
secondly,  his  life  history,  giving  an  account  of  his 
present  social  capacities  like  play  and  work;  of  his 
individual  capacities  like  self-help;  of  his  moral 
character;  of  his  diseases,  past  and  present;  and 
of  his  infancy  and  of  his  birth-conditions.  This 
leads  naturally  to  the  third  item,  his  family  history 
dwelling  on  the  mental  and  nervous  diseases  of 
his  parents,  grandparents,  uncles,  aunts,  brothers, 
sisters  and  cousins.  The  last  item  is  always  im- 
portant and  sometimes  decisive  in  its  testimony  as 
to  the  temporariness  or  permanency  of  the  back- 


168  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

wardness  under  discussion.  How  much  feeble-mind- 
edness  is  caused  by  birth  conditions  and  by  circum- 
stances in  life,  is  a  question  of  grave  doubt.  All 
writers  admit  that  the  proportion  is  small. 

Heredity. — When  we  turn  to  heredity  proper 
much  of  the  doubtfulness  affecting  the  other  two 
stages  of  causes  vanishes.  The  supreme  fact  that 
permanent  backwardness  is  chiefly  due^  to  mental 
defects  of  parents  seems  to  be  established  beyond 
doubt  and  continual  researches  tend  to  raise  the  per- 
centages of  cases  caused  by  them.  The  per- 
centages vary  from  about  sixty-six  and  two-thirds 
per  cent,  to  one  hundred  per  cent.  That  is,  some 
authors  suggest  that  two-thirds  at  least  of  all 
the  feeble-mindedness  in  the  world  could  be  elim- 
inated in  a  few  generations  by  proper  public 
sentiment  and  sufficient  legislation  adequately  en- 
forced to  prevent  the  propagation  of  the  mentally 
unfit.  Some  few  insist  that  nearly  all  of  it  would 
disappear.  Out  of  thirty-five  medical  men  ex- 
amined in  England  by  the  Royal  Commission  of 
1904,  twenty-five  asserted  their  belief  that  feeble- 
mindedness was  almost,  if  not  wholly  a  hereditary 
disease.  The  other  ten  who  placed  environment  be- 
fore heredity  as  a  casual  factor  had  had  very  much 
less  opportunity  to  study  the  facts.  Modern  bio- 
logical theories  tend  more  and  more  to  confirm  the 
opinion  of  the  twenty-five  experts.  A  few  scientists 
insist  that  feeble-minded  people  are  a  distinct  variety 
of  the  human  species,  and  if  they  were  left  to  them- 


THE   CLINICAL  DIAGNOSIS        169 

selves  to  propagate  their  kind,  would  develop  a 
separate  race  of  imbeciles.  All  of  this  evidence 
tends  strongly  to  the  belief  that  amentia  is  wholly 
hereditary  and  that  no  diseases,  wounds  or  accidents 
happening  to  the  individual  in  his  lifetime,  at  birth, 
or  later,  can  make  an  imbecile  out  of  a  child  with 
a  normal  brain.  This,  however,  is  a  disputed  point 
which  may  be  ultimately  insolvable.  For,  grant- 
ing that  certain  diseases  like  cerebral  meningitis 
will  inevitably  leave  a  mark  upon  the  mind  of  the 
afflicted  child  as  ineradicable  as  the  scar  tissue  on 
the  cortex,  still  it  can  be  plausibly  argued  that  this 
germ  disease  would  never  have  arisen  had  not  the 
brain  been  natively  weak  and,  therefore,  susceptible 
to  the  attacks  of  the  disease.  Much  support  is  given 
to  this  theory  by  the  fact  that  the  sequelae,  or  evil 
results,  of  scarlet  fever  and  other  illnesses,  may 
leave  the  special  nervous  end-organs  like  eyes  and 
ears  permanently  affected  and  yet  not  be  able  to 
mar  the  strong  central  brain.  Examples  of  such 
cases  will  readily  occur  to  all.  Laura  Bridgman, 
and  later  Helen  Keller,  are  brilliant  ones.  Malnutri- 
tion and  marasmus  may  be  urged  as  causes  of  feeble- 
mindedness arising  after  birth.  Here  again  the 
same  kind  of  counter-argument  can  be  used  and  sup- 
ported to  some  extent  with  some  degree  of  force  by 
the  general  assertion  that  the  healthy  brain  always 
demands  its  toll  of  sustenance  even  at  the  expense 
of  all  other  organs  in  the  human  body;  that  when 
men  die  of  starvation  all  their  organs  except  the 


170  BACKWARD.   CHILDREN 

brain  perish  from  want.  The  brain,  like  the  mon- 
arch of  a  kingdom,  demands  its  tax  from  all  the 
rest.    It  starves  last. 

The  Physical  Examination. — ^After  the  inquiry 
into  the  personal  and  family  history  comes  the  phys- 
ical examination.  While  it  must  be  made  in  part  at 
least  by  a  regular  physician,  it  need  not  be  a  medical 
diagnosis.  It  is  safest  merely  to  note  symptoms 
or  suspicions  of  symptoms  to  be  fully  studied  later 
by  a  specialist.  The  examination  consists,  first,  of 
a  full  description  of  the  personal  appearance  of  the 
child ;  secondly,  his  principal  measurements ;  thirdly, 
his  chest-expansion,  grip  of  his  hands,  and  his  power 
to  resist  fatigue;  fourthly,  the  acuteness  of  his  spe- 
cial senses,  especially  sight  and  hearing.  This 
makes  up  the  first  part  of  the  examination  which 
any  clinicist  can  give.  The  second  part  is  the  med- 
ical examination,  and  should  be  performed  by  a 
regularly  licensed  physician.  It  includes  tests  of  the 
heart,  lungs,  throat  and  nose,  stomach,  intestines, 
liver,  kidneys,  genito-urinary  organs,  and  a  search 
for  any  constitutional  or  nervous  diseases.  The 
'purpose  of  this  whole  examination  is  twofold;  it  is 
made  to  discover  two  classes  of  physical  defects. 
The  first  are  removable  and  hence  are  associated 
with  and  are  signs  of  temporary  retardation.  The 
second  are  inborn,  are  not  removable  and  are  signs 
of  permanent  retardation. 

Can  the  teacher  learn  by  the  physical  marks  alone 
to  distinguish  temporary  backwardness  from  per- 


THE   CLINICAL   DIAGNOSIS        171 

manent  backwardness?  In  some  low  grades  of  im- 
becility and  in  all  grades  of  idiocy,  yes.  In  the 
grades  of  moronity,  or  light  feeble-mindedness,  no. 
The  marks  on  the  bodies  of  these  high-grade  classes 
are  no  more  numerous  nor  prominent  than  with  nor- 
mal persons.  Recently  a  daily  paper  presented  the 
picture  of  an  apparent  imbecile.  There  was  the 
open  mouth,  front  teeth  very  wide  apart  indicating 
the  absence  of  other  teeth,  the  thick  low-growing 
hair  hiding  the  upper  part  of  the  ears,  attached  ear- 
lobes,  drooping  eyelids,  and  the  vacuous  look  of  the 
vacant  mind.  Further  reading  discovered  the  fact 
that  it  was  really  a  photograph  of  a  young  society 
woman  belonging  to  one  of  the  best  families.  This 
caution  is  thrown  against  the  too  ready  and  too  easy 
judgment  of  a  child  by  his  external  appearance.  Bad 
manners,  dirty  face  and  hands,  unkempt  hair,  com- 
mon ugliness  are  none  of  them  at  all  significant  of 
imbecility,  nor  of  the  opposite  virtues  of  mentality. 
In  cases  of  true  feeble-mindedness  the  uglier  the 
child  is,  the  more  hope  is  there  of  educating  him;  the 
comelier  he  is,  the  less  the  hope  of  making  much 
progress  in  his  training. 

The  Physical  Marks  of  the  Typical  Imbecile. — 
The  typical  feeble-minded  person  carries  about  in 
his  body  marks  that,  to  the  practical  eye,  immedi- 
ately catalogue  him  with  unerring  certainty.  These 
marks  vary  in  number  and  prominence  from  grade 
to  grade  of  mentality.  The  idiot  presents  them  with 
pitiable  obviousness ;  the  imbecile  in  a  lesser  degree ; 


172  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

and  the  moron  only  obscurely.  Probably  no  one  in- 
dividual ever  possesses  all  the  physical  defects  of 
feeble-mindedness.  To  describe  them,  therefore,  we 
must  imagine  a  typical  case  of  middle-grade  imbec- 
ility and  making  that  the  standard,  expect  in  gen- 
eral that  those  below  him  will  possess  many  of  the 
defects  in  a  more  marked  degree,  and  those  above 
him  in  a  less  marked  degree.  Further,  we  must 
warn  the  student  that  probably  not  one  of  the  de- 
fects to  be  named  are  peculiar  to  mental  defectives, 
but  that  each  one  of  them  might  be  duplicated  some- 
where in  the  world  in  some  normally-minded  per- 
son. One  swallow  does  not  make  a  summer  but  it 
requires  multitudes  of  the  season's  signs  to  mark 
the  change  from  spring.  So  one  physical  defect  does 
not  make  a  person  feeble-minded ;  but  a  whole  mass 
of  irremovable  physical  defects  found  in  a  backward 
child  marks  feeble-mindedness  with  almost  fatal  cer- 
tainty. Hence,  the  caution  must  go  out  against, 
first,  judging  by  physical  marks  without  backzvard- 
ness;  secondly,  against  judging  by  one  or  a  few 
marks  and  not  by  a  systematic  examination  of  the 
whole  body;  and  thirdly,  in  the  lesser  stages  of 
retardation,  against  basing  the  final  decision  for 
permanent  backwardness  on  physical  marks  even 
with  a  history  of  backwardness  included.  With 
these  limitations,  the  ordinary  teacher  or  parent  can 
do  at  least  two  things ;  first,  can  be  instantly  directed 
to  the  study  and  further  examination  of  a  backward 
child  and  so  save  it  from  false  treatment  and  detri- 


THE    CLINICAL   DIAGNOSIS         173 

mental  training,  and  secondly,  confirm  to  a  large 
degree  a  suspicion  of  feeble-mindedness  by  merely 
looking  closely  at  a  child. 

General  Appearance. — Even  to  the  most  casual 
and  most  unskilled  observer  there  is  something  de- 
cidedly abnormal  in  the  general  appearance  of  a  typ- 
ical imbecile.  If  the  observer  were  asked  to  point 
out  just  what  it  is  that  marks  out  this  poor  soul 
from  normal  people,  he  would  probably  be  at  a  loss 
to  do  it  without  systematic  practise  in  the  art.  That 
comes  from  the  little-noted  fact  that  people  look  at 
each  other  only  very  generally  and  describe  indi- 
viduals only  in  comparative  terms.  *Tall,"  "short," 
"heavy,"  "light,"  "dark  hair/'  "large  head,"  really 
mean  nothing  as  descriptions  of  persons.  I  have 
frequently  placed  a  child  before  a  class  of  teachers, 
have  asked  them  to  look  at  the  child  for  fifteen  min- 
utes and  then  tell  me  what  the  child  was  like.  The 
variety  of  answers  received  was  bewildering.  Fat 
and  thin,  light  and  dark,  tall  and  short,  large  for  his 
age,  small  for  his  age,  and  many  other  equally  con- 
tradictory judgments  can  be  derived  from  persons 
who  observe  daily  all  sorts  of  children.  Such  ex- 
periences suggest  that  observing  children  accurately 
is  an  art  to  be  diligently  acquired,  that  wherever  pos- 
sible measurements  be  made,  and  that  terms  as  ac- 
curate as  possible  be  used,  amplified  with  phrases; 
for  example,  not  "tall,"  but  "tall  for  a  child  of 
nine,"  if  a  measurement  is  not  given,  with  the  im- 
plication that  the  average  height  of  a  nine-year-old 


174  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

is  the  one  given  in  some  standard  chart  Hke  Has- 
tings'. 

With  these  cautions  we  are  ready  to  take  another 
look  at  our  typical  imbecile  to  discern  what  it  is  in 
his  personal  appearance  that  impresses  us.  To  do 
that  we  will  proceed  with  a  systematic  survey,  meas- 
uring first  his  height  and  weight,  then  looking  at 
his  skin,  then  his  posture,  then  his  gait.  After  that 
we  will  proceed  to  details  of  hair,  skull,  eyes,  ears, 
nose,  mouth,  teeth,  tongue,  hands  and  feet.  By  that 
time  we  ought  to  know  something  of  his  character- 
istic marks. 

His  Complexion. — In  the  first  place,  probably 
the  most  striking  quality  about  his  general  appear- 
ance is  his  peculiar  opaque,  ashy  complexion,  due 
to  his  poor  circulation  and  his  harsh,  thick-looking 
skin  which  is  easily  broken,  giving  ready  rise  to  in- 
fection and  furnishing  a  congenial  soil  for  parasites, 
and  giving  off,  in  some  cases,  a  peculiar  odor,  which 
is  so  pronounced  that  an  expert  can  diagnose  imbec- 
ility by  simply  entering  the  room  where  such  a  child 
has  been  for  a  little  time.  Excellent  diet,  free  exer- 
cise and  frequent  baths  will  to  a  large  extent  over- 
come all  these  defects. 

Along  with  the  skin  the  posture  makes  its  impres- 
sion on  the  eye.  The  head  is  usually  inclined  for- 
ward and  to  one  side,  the  shoulders  droop  forward, 
the  hands  swing  listlessly  at  the  sides,  the  knees  are 
bent  and  the  whole  attitude  reminds  one  of  the  ape. 
Walking  does  not  improve  matters.    The  feet  drag 


THE   CLINICAL   DIAGNOSIS        175 

listlessly,  the  toes  scrape  on  the  floor,  the  arms 
swing  pendulum-Hke,  and  the  whole  movement  pro- 
ceeds aimlessly  and  without  certain  decision  as  to 
point  of  destination  or  the  path  of  reaching  it.  The 
imbecile  is  clumsy  in  all  movements,  slow  in  run- 
ning, falls  frequently,  and  shows  in  every  act  the  one 
great  characteristic  of  flabbiness  in  all  his  thinking 
and  doing. 

Various  Bodily  Organs. — The  various  organs 
furnish  their  detail  of  defects  to  fill  in  the  picture. 
Beginning  at  the  top,  we  find  skulls  are  too  large  or 
too  small ;  too  short  and  too  long ;  the  first  be- 
cause of  water  usually  in  the  cavities  of  the  brain; 
the  second,  not  because  of  any  pressure  on  the  brain, 
but  because  the  brain  will  not  grow;  the  third  often 
from  malnutrition  in  babyhood,  giving  the  box- 
shaped  skull;  and  the  fourth  from  malformation  of 
brain.  The  technical  names  for  the  four  types  are 
microcephalic,  hydrocephalic,  brachycephalic  and 
dolichocephalic.  Though  popularly  these  shapes  of 
skull  are  thought  to  be  highly  important  as  betrayers 
of  mental  defects,  they  are  in  fact  quite  indecisive 
and  in  themselves  form  no  criteria  of  brain  defects 
at  all.  If  the  brains  are  there  and  in  working  order 
it  matters  little  how  they  are  shaped.  Napoleon,  it 
is  asserted  by  some,  was  slightly  hydrocephalic.  A 
professor  in  one  of  our  colleges  is  markedly  dolicho- 
cephalic and  IS  very  able.  Great  musicians  are  said 
to  be  usually  brachycephalic.  Only  when  other  ab- 
normalities of  character  and  conduct  appear  are 


176  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

these  departures  from  the  usual  significant.  In  this 
connection  it  might  be  remarked  that  the  hair  is 
either  very  sparse  or  very  thick,  fine  and  silky  or 
coarse  and  wiry,  and  that  the  color  is  not  significant. 
The  Special  Sense  Organs. — ^The  various  or- 
gans of  special  sense  come  next.  The  eyes  may  be 
small  and  set  near  together,  or  far  apart,  often  de- 
fective and  sometimes  one  is  one  color  and  the  other 
another  color.  The  ears  are  thought  to  be  very  sig- 
nificant. The  lobes  are  frequently  attached  or  grown 
to  the  cheek;  the  shell  is  badly  formed  with  little 
hard  knots  of  cartilage  at  the  top  called  Darwinian 
tubercles,  because  they  are  thought  to  come  from 
ape-ancestry;  the  whole  ear  may  be  excessively 
large  or  excessively  small,  may  stand  out  from  the 
head,  and  may  be  misplaced,  too  far  back  or  too  high 
up  on  the  side  of  the  head,  though  the  shape  of  the 
skull  will  often  give  this  effect  if  it  is  low  or  flat  at 
the  back.  The  nose  is  usually  flat  at  the  bridge  and 
wide  in  the  nostrils,  though  again  the  opposite  may 
be  true  and  the  nose  present  a  keen  appearance  with 
thin  nostrils.  I  have  never  seen  a  feeble-minded 
child  with  a  Roman  nose,  even  among  Jews,  though 
of  course  there  may  be  some.  The  mouth  is  large 
and  coarse  with  thick  lips,  or  strikingly  small  with 
knife-blade  lips.  The  marked  symptom  is  slavering 
with  sores  at  the  corners  of  the  mouth  and  cracks  at 
other  parts  of  the  lips.  The  teeth  are  crooked,  peg- 
shaped,  decayed,  some  absent  from  babyhood,  and 
sometimes  too  many  present,  even  to  the  extent  of 


THE   CLINICAL   DIAGNOSIS        177 

forming  a  double  row  on  each  jaw.  The  tongue  is 
thick  or  thin  and  pointed,  and  cut  with  deep  fissures. 
The  hands  are  the  pecuHar  organs  of  human  in- 
teUigence  and  as  such  furnish  the  surest  indicator  of 
the  deficient  mentaHty  of  the  imbecile.  His  hands 
are  typically  weak,  flaccid,  useless,  listless,  lying 
about  as  if  they  did  not  belong  to  him;  if  well  kept, 
with  smooth  tender  skin,  and  ladylike  fingers, 
feeble  of  prehension  and  likely  not  to  oppose  them- 
selves to  the  thumb  in  any  decided  fashion  at  any 
time,  and  not  at  all  for  years  after  birth.  The  cor- 
responding fingers  on  the  two  hands  may  be  of  dif- 
ferent shape,  are  sometimes  deformed,  webbed  and 
lacking;  the  ends  are  clubbed  and  the  nails  brittle. 
More  significant  than  their  appearance  is  the  imbec- 
ile's attitude  toward  his  hands.  Normal  people 
find  them  useful;  to  him  they  seem  to  be  insignifi- 
cant appendages  as  useless  as  those  of  a  medieval 
court-lady  and  as  devoid  of  purpose  as  the  tail  of  an 
elephant.  And  all  of  this  has  come  about  because 
they  have  not  been  energized  into  countless  activities 
by  a  normal  and  active  brain  behind  them  to  tasks 
that  have  curved  the  fingers  and  thumbs  like  a  sail- 
or's ready  to  grasp  a  rope.  Even  after  mere  imita- 
tive training  has  taught  the  muscles  certain  manual 
habits,  there  still  remains  a  lack  of  that  decisive  pre- 
hension so  naturally  the  property  of  normal  minds. 
Descending  to  feet  we  have  little  to  add  except  to 
note  that  flat  feet  are  common,  that  a  broken-down 
instep  seems  to  indicate  a  broken-down  mind,  and 


178  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

to  repeat  that  the  flabbiness  of  the  hand  and  all  other 
muscles  extends  itself  to  the  cold,  bloodless  pedal  ex- 
tremities, making  them  peculiarly  liable  to  frost- 
bite. 

Mental  Tests. — ^The  third  examination  is  the 
mental  test  proper.  Not  that  eye-examinations  and 
head-measurements  are  not  mental  tests,  but  here  we 
come  to  tests  that  have  always  been  associated  with 
the  mind  as  measures  of  intelligence.  They  may  be 
divided  into  three  kinds;  first,  pedagogical  tests; 
second,  non-pedagogical  tests;  third,  tests  for  spe- 
cific defects  in  particular  mental  processes;  and,  un- 
less such  tests  have  been  included  in  the  physical 
examination,  tests  of  the  special  senses.  The  peda- 
gogical tests  are  just  the  ordinary  schoolroom  ex- 
amination questions — reading,  writing,  grammar 
and  arithmetic.  The  fact  is  that  the  pedagogical 
tests  are  just  as  good  as  many  others  specially  elab- 
orated for  measuring  general  backwardness.  If 
for  example,  a  ten-year-old  boy  has  been  exposed 
continuously  to  four  years  of  schooling  and  can  do 
only  second  grade  work  and  no  special  cause  ac- 
counts for  his  deficiency,  he  can  be  safely  counted 
on  to  be  two  years  retarded  in  his  general  mental 
growth.  Neither,  in  all  probability,  will  any  special 
talent  in  some  particular  direction  vitiate  this  judg- 
ment nor  disappoint  the  expectation  that  he  will 
show  the  same  degree  of  retardation  by  other  sys- 
tems of  tests.     In  short,  school  grading,  applied  to 


THE   CLINICAL   DIAGNOSIS        179 

a  large  number  of  children  under  the  same  condi- 
tions, measures  their  mental  capacities  and  predicts 
their  future  adjustments  to  society  with  fair  ac- 
curacy. 

Other  tests  have  been  formulated  to  measure  the 
mental  capacities  of  children  independent  of  their 
school  learning.  How  far  they  succeed  is  a  question. 
The  system  best  known  in  this  country  was  formu- 
lated by  two  Frenchmen,  Monsieur  Binet  and  Mon- 
sieur Simon.  The  final  form  of  the  tests  consists  of 
five  questions  and  tasks  for  each  normal  child  from 
three  years  old  up  to  fifteen,  or  mental  maturity.  An 
elaborate  system  of  grading  defines  the  child's  men- 
tal stature.  If  he  is  two  years  or  more  behind  his  fel- 
lows of  the  same  age,  it  is  assumed  that  he  will 
never  make  up  the  lost  ground,  and  so  is  mentally 
defective.  These  tests  are  simple,  compact,  easy 
to  apply  and  measure  mentality  in  terms  of  nor- 
mal children's  ages.  For  these  and  other  acci- 
dental reasons  Binet's  tests  have  spread  far  and 
wide.  One  stricture  on  their  application  can  be 
made  with  a  fair  degree  of  safety.  They  should 
not  alone  decide  the  feeble-mindedness  of  any 
child.  Binet  himself  did  not  intend  them  for 
such  a  purpose  and  specifically  warns  against  such 
a  contingency.  Taken  in  connection  with  physical 
conditions,  environmental  influences  and  heredity, 
they  are  probably  quite  as  accurate  as  pedagogical 
tests  and  are  more  convenient  to  apply. 


180  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

Signs  of  Permanent  Backwardness. — Though 
we  now  come  to  what  might  be  supposed  to  be  signs 
of  mental  deficiency  most  easy  to  discover,  namely^ 
the  mental  signs  of  permanent  backwardness,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  we  have  reached  the  most  obscure 
and  most  difficult  portion  of  diagnosis.  For  this 
kind  of  mental  deficiency  does  not  show  itself  in 
some  peculiar  and  limited  mental  defect  perfectly 
obvious  to  the  examiner.  As  the  definition  indicates, 
feeble-mindedness  is  such  a  pervasive,  such  an  all- 
inclusive  disease  that  it  can  not  be  diagnosed  from 
one  class  of  symptoms  or  signs.  Here  again  we 
meet  the  same  quality  which  is  manifested  especially 
in  the  higher  grades  of  mental  deficiency.  I  have 
now  in  mind  a  girl  fourteen  years  old,  well-formed 
in  every  respect,  beautiful  of  face,  sweet  and  mild- 
tempered,  expressing  in  her  repose  and  poise  a  mind 
and  character  above  her  years,  with  no  mental  defect 
whatever  showing  in  her  exterior  appearance,  or 
in  her  manual  work.  Yet  this  girl,  who  in  all  man- 
ual work  shows  no  want  of  any  ordinary  mental 
powers,  soon  displays  by  her  talk,  by  almost  in- 
finitesimal traits  of  manner  and  silliness  of  smile, 
that  '^something  is  wrong."  What  is  it?  It  is  an 
evanescent  something,  a  general  tone,  a  continuous 
permeation  of  everything  she  does  with  a  ''lack.'' 
''She  has  a  lack"  is  the  paradoxical  truth  about  the 
matter,  though  what  that  lack  is,  is  hard  to  put 
down  on  paper  because  it  does  not  appear  in  any 
of  her  physical  attributes  but  lies  hidden  somewhere 


THE   CLINICAL   DIAGNOSIS        181 

in  her  mind  and  character  and  colors  her  whole  act- 
ive life. 

General  Signs  of  Permanent  Backwardness. 
—Probably  the  best  way  to  come  at  the  pe- 
culiarities of  the  feeble  mentality  is  to  point  out  the 
first  and  greatest  defect.  It  is  slowness.  But  here 
again  we  are  in  danger  of  sayrfig"at"6hce  too  little 
and  too  much ;  too  much  because  many  normal  peo- 
ple are  slow  in  their  thinking  processes  yet  have  the 
capability  not  only  of  maintaining  themselves  in  so- 
ciety but  of  advancing  very  materially  through  years 
of  persistent  toil.  The  mental  defective  lacks  the 
persistency.  He  is  slow  and  flighty.  We  are  in 
danger  of  saying  too  little  because  the  slowness  is 
not  always  in  the  mental  processes  themselves  but  in 
their  development.  The  mental  defective  will  some- 
times reply  quickly  enough;  indeed  he  will  exhibit 
a  certain  smartness  and  wit  in  his  answers  or  ob- 
servations, especially  if  the  questions  fall  within  his 
limited  capacities  and  if  he  is  of  the  excitable 
and  susceptible  type.  In  fact,  it  is  easy  to  de- 
ceive a  whole  room  full  of  careful  observers  by 
putting  questions  to  a  feeble-minded  child  in  their 
presence,  each  question  lying  within  the  powers  of 
the  child  and  worded  in  such  a  way  that  he  gets  a 
hint  of  the  answer,  though  all  the  questions  may  be 
new  to  him  in  the  form  in  which  they  are  asked. 
The  slowness  lies  not  always  in  the  working  of  men- 
tal processes  like  perceiving,  remembering,  imagin- 
ing and  reasoning  when  these  powers  are  present 


182  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

and  items  of  knowledge  are  not  being  learned,  but 
in  the  development  of  these  processes  in  the  life  of 
the  child.  Therefore,  the  mental  growth  of  a  per- 
manently retarded  person  has  been  likened  to  that  of 
the  normal  child  except  that  the  growth  does  not 
proceed  so  rapidly  and  does  not  proceed  so  far. 
Hence,  we  find  that  Binet  defines  mental  retarda- 
tion of  this  kind  in  terms  of  normal  minds  of 
younger  age.  To  put  it  the  other  way  round,  every 
normal  child  is  born  deaf,  dumb,  blind  and  an  idiot 
except  that  it  has  in  it  potentialities  which  will  de- 
velop under  proper  environment  to  what  nobody  on 
earth  can  predict.  Set  up  all  the  babies  of  the  world 
in  a  row  and  who  can  tell  which  will  be  the  leaders 
of  the  world  forty  or  fifty  years  hence?  On  the 
other  hand,  the  mental  defective  is  born  deaf, 
dumb,  blind  and  an  idiot,  and  either  remains  an  idiot, 
or  slowly  grows  into  an  imbecile,  or  else  a  moron, 
reaching  those  upper  limits  in  twelve  or  fifteen  years 
and  halting  there  for  all  the  rest  of  his  life.  Within 
certain  fairly  well-defined  limits  his  future  can  be 
prophesied  and  this  prophecy  we  have  called  the 
diagnosis.  His  progress  over  this  limited  way  is 
fairly  well  divided  into  stages  by  his  years  and 
these  likewise  have  been  marked  out  and  described 
more  or  less  accurately,  though  work  of  this  kind  is 
still  going  on  and  details  of  his  picture  are  being 
filled  in  each  year.  The  signs  of  his  mentality  are 
given  in  the  following  composite  table  made  up 
from  a  number  of  authors : 


THE   CLINICAL   DIAGNOSIS        183 

A  Bird's-Eye  View  of  Grades  of  Feeble-Minded  Chil- 
dren Correlated  With  the  Ages  of  Normal 
Children 
I.  Morons. 

1.  High-Grade  Moron. — Educable  in  elemen- 

tary school  work ;  can  write  simple  letters ; 
can  be  trained  in  manual  and  intellectual 
arts ;  can  not  plan  for  the  future.  Equals 
normal  child  of  twelve  years,  or  eleven 
years. 

2.  Middle-Grade  Moron. — Can  be  trained  in 

the  manual  arts ;  is  two  years  or  more  re- 
tarded in  school  work  of  the  simplest 
kind.  Equals  normal  child  of  ten  years, 
or  nine  years. 

3.  Low-Grade  Moron. — Can  be  trained  in  in- 

dustrial and  simplest  manual  occupations ; 
can  do  errands  and  light  work ;  can  not 
learn  to  read  or  write  except  the  simplest 
words.  Equals  normal  child  of  eight 
years. 
II.  Imbeciles. 

1.  High-Grade   Imbeciles. — Can   do   tasks   of 

short  duration;  wash,  scrub,  sweep,  etc., 
but  nothing  higher.  Equals  normal  child 
of  seven  years. 

2.  Middle-Grade  Imbecile. — Improvable  in  self- 

help  and  help  to  others,  that  is,  can  be 
taught  to  wash  himself,  eat,  etc. ;  can  do 
only  the  simplest  tasks ;  can  guard  himself 
against  common  dangers.  Equals  normal 
child  of  six  years,  or  five  years. 

3.  Low-Grade  Imbecile. — Plays  a  little,  but  can 

do    nothing     else     without     supervision. 
Equals  normal  child  of   four  years,  or 
three  years. 
III.  Idiots. 

L  High-Grade   Idiot. — Eats   with   discrimina- 
tion, rejecting  what  is  not  food;  can  not 


184  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

protect  himself  against  common  dangers. 
Equals  normal  child  of  two  years. 

2.  Middle-Grade  Idiot. — Able  to  feed  himself, 

but  will  eat  almost  anything.    Equals  nor- 
mal child  of  one  year. 

3.  Low-Grade  Idiot. — Not  able  to  walk,  talk  or 

move;  will  swallow  whatever  is  put  into 

his  mouth. 
Some  Particular  Marks  of  Backwardness. — To 
the  description  of  these  general  capacities  we  may 
add  a  few  words  concerning  definite  processes  of 
the  mind.  For  it  often  happens,  especially  with  a 
certain  class  of  imbeciles  called  idiot es  savants,  or 
learned  idiots,  that  they  possess  wonderful  powers 
in  certain  directions.  So  the  ordinary  defective  may 
possess  ordinary  capacities  in  several  directions  but 
be  entirely  or  largely  wanting  in  other  directions. 

Usually  his  perception  is  present  but  dull,  drop- 
ping down  to  greater  and  greater  dulness  as  we  fall 
to  lower  grades  of  mental  incapacity.  Training  is 
necessary  to  get  the  defective  to  see  and  hear  sights 
and  sounds  which  the  ordinary  child  perceives  in- 
stantly and  reflexly.  His  memory  is  almost  always 
pronounced  "good''  by  his  relatives  and  friends. 
They  mean  by  that  that  he  remembers  small  items  of 
experience  which,  on  account  of  their  unimportance, 
are  speedily  swallowed  up  in  the  larger  issues  of  life 
as  it  is  lived  by  normal  people.  Another  talent  as 
frequently  noted  by  friends,  is  the  feeble-minded 
.  child's  aptitude  for  music.  As  rhythm  permeates  all 
^  life,  so  also  does  it  flow  through  all  grades  of  mental 
deficiency,   reaching  in  the  morons  sometimes  to 


THE   CLINICAL   DIAGNOSIS        185 

splendid  abilities  in  classical  music,  and  in  a  few 
cases,  to  a  positive  genius  in  rendition.  Music  is  a 
most  valuable  means  of  training  mental  defectives 
and  the  band  of  a  feeble-minded  institution  is  al- 
ways one  of  its  happiest  features.  Yet  the  players 
can  not  compose,  for  their  constructive  imagination 
is  lame,  halting,  and  usually  busied  when  it  acts  at 
all  with  fantastic  and  childish  schemes,  or  with 
vain-glorious  dreams  of  self-aggrandizement, 
though  sometimes  those  talented  in  manual  work 
will  plan  material  things,  and  moral  imbeciles  will 
scheme  diligently  how  to  do  some  mischief.  If  such 
activities  can  be  called  reasoning,  mental  defectives 
have  reason,  but  it  amounts  to  no  more  than  mere 
cunning  and  to  practical  wisdom  capable  of  seeing 
the  means  to  material  ends  but  failing  in  the  higher 
realms  of  abstract  thinking,  and  never  able  to  look 
forward  through  the  years  and  conserve  present 
good  for  future  needs  of  self  or  others.  On  the 
whole,  through  all  stages  of  mentality  from  idiots 
up,  these  capacities  vary  as  they  vary  in  growing 
normal  children,  and  we  can  always  best  measure 
the  power  and  responsibilities  of  these  little  folk, 
no  matter  how  old  they  grow,  by  assigning  them  to 
their  proper  psychological  ages  and  then  asking, 
"What  would  a  normal  boy  or  girl  do  at  the  corre- 
sponding age?"  For  instance,  if  it  is  a  middle-grade 
imbecile  boy  we  are  considering,  we  must  ask,  "What 
would  a  seven-year-old  normal  boy  do,  or  be  ?" 
Besides  defects  in  the  intellectual  processes  of 


V 


186  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

these  children,  defects  in  feelings,  instincts  and  emo- 
tions often  appear  especially  in  the  lower  grades. 
The  idiot  lacks  from  the  beginning  the  simplest  life- 
preserving  instincts;  he  must  be  taught  to  eat,  and 
the  lowest  grade  will  eat  anything  put  into  his 
mouth.  The  higher  grades  often  lack  the  social  in- 
stincts. All  of  them  are  nearly  always  egotistic, 
living  in  a  little  world  bounded  by  those  interests  that 
closely  attach  themselves  to  self  and  its  immediate 
satisfactions.  Vanity,  egotism,  love  of  notice  and  of 
notoriety  are  their  petty  vices,  often  leading  them 
into  ludicrous  acts,  and  occasionally  into  acts  of 
unpremeditated  but  desperate  violence.  One  low- 
grade  imbecile  always  follows  visitors  through  his 
department  of  the  institution  where  he  is  kept,  sol- 
emnly imitating  the  official  guide  in  all  his  acts  and 
gestures.  Another  tried  to  bribe  an  officer  at  an  ex- 
hibit to  mark  his  piece  of  work  with  a  card  crediting 
him  with  mentality  a  grade  higher  than  he  really 
was.  He  did  not  dream  of  asking  to  be  made  nor- 
mal. Another  set  fire  to  some  buildings  merely  for 
excitement  and  the  possible  chance  to  play  the  hero. 
All  of  these  instances  are  revelations  of  the  instinc- 
tive stages  in  which  these  queer  people  live,  as  well 
as  instances  of  failures  of  that  volitional  power 
which  would  keep  similar  impulses  in  normal  people 
safely  hidden  from  the  light  of  day. 

Indeed,  the  final  mark  of  feeble-mindedness  lies 
more  in  the  will  than  anywhere  else.  In  the  last 
analysis  it  is  a  matter  of  character.    Almost  every 


THE   CLINICAL   DIAGNOSIS        187 

mental  aberration,  and  every  foolish  feeling  of  the 
feeble-minded  might  be  duplicated  in  the  myriad  of 
feelings  and  foolish  thoughts  of  normal  people  who 
nevertheless  have  the  power  to  suppress  them 
always  to  some  degree,  and  usually  to  a  degree 
consonant  with  their  living  and  moving  in  ordinary 
society.  Everybody  is  in  some  degree  and  on  some 
occasions  feeble-minded.  Fatigue  reduces  the  best 
minds  to  that  state;  a  terrible  event,  stage  fright, 
sudden  awakening,  extreme  embarrassment,  reduce 
some  people  to  a  state  of  mind  very  similar  to  the 
almost  constant  inner  experience  of  the  feeble- 
minded person  whose  field  of  attention  is  limited  al- 
ways and  whose  mind  stops  dead  under  any,  for  him, 
undue  pressure.  But  the  normal  person  is  not  too 
feeble-minded;  he  passes  muster  in  the  large  social 
life  of  the  community  and  barring  accidents  that  no- 
body can  avoid,  succeeds  in  being  fairly  safe,  pros- 
perous and  happy. 

Therefore  in  mind  at  least,  there  is  a  close  kin 
between  the  so-called  normal  and  the  mentally  de- 
fective. It  is  a  kin  that  readily  removes  all  repug- 
nance from  the  minds  of  those  who  live  with  these 
unfortunates.  For  very  soon  teachers  of  the  de- 
fectives see  in  them  all  the  virtues  and  all  the  foi- 
bles in  germ,  at  least,  which  pass  with  such  a  brave 
show  in  the  real  world,  and  they  find  themselves  not 
transported  to  an  entirely  new  existence,  but  simply 
removed  to  stage-land  wherein  the  tragedies  of  the 
larger  world  appear  in  the  burlesques  of  Punch  and 


188  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

Judy,  real  to  the  players  as  Punch  is  to  children, 
where  the  sorrows  of  life  are  poignant  with  the 
anguish  of  the  moment  and  as  ephemeral  as  the  tears 
that  wash  away  their  sting  forever.  One  knows  not 
whether  to  laugh  or  weep  when  he  sees  a  strong 
man,  forty  years  old,  stand  up  against  a  door  and 
bawl  like  a  baby  because  he  could  not  go  down  to 
his  beloved  laundry  work  on  account  of  a  quaran- 
tine for  measles,  and  to  hear  the  attendant  say, 
"Why,  Billy  Moore,  aren't  you  ashamed  to  stand  up 
there  before  everybody  and  cry  like  that?"  But  he 
was  not  ashamed  and  bellowed  out  his  woe  with 
the  abandon  of  a  healthy  three-year-old  who  had 
dropped  his  candy  in  the  dust. 

Summary. — ^These,  in  brief,  are  the  physical 
and  mental  signs  of  permanent  backwardness.  The 
method  of  discovering  and  measuring  them  has  been 
outlined  in  this  very  brief  account,  but  it  is  detailed 
enough  to  enable  the  teacher  or  the  parent  to  distin- 
guish temporary  backwardness  from  permanent 
backwardness.  The  importance  of  this  ability  ap- 
pears when  it  is  remembered  that  by  the  most  con- 
servative estimates,  about  six  hundred  thousand  or 
seven  hundred  thousand  feeble-minded  children  are 
to  be  found  among  the  eighteen  million  in  the  public 
schools;  and  of  these  about  ninety  thousand  are  in- 
stitutional cases,  some  of  them  very  low  indeed  in 
mentality.  To  distinguish  these  six  hundred  thou- 
sand from  the  rest  of  the  six  million  who  are  re- 
tarded only  temporarily  is  of  the  highest  importance. 


JHE   CLINICAL   DIAGNOSIS        189 

Otherwise  confusion  results  in  injury  and  waste  and 
begets  in  the  teacher  a  skepticism  and  hopelessness 
regarding  methods  of  teaching  backward  children, 
methods  which  should  never  be  applied  to  the  feeble- 
minded who  can  not  be  taught  some  lessons  by  any 
method  known  to  man. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  TEACHER^S  DIAGNOSIS 

IT  IS  said  that  when  a  new  student  came  for 
training  under  the  great  Agassiz  he  was  given 
a  fish  by  the  master  and  told  to  sit  down  and  "look 
at  zee  fish !"  In  a  couple  of  hours  he  might  be  asked 
for  a  report,  would  render  it  and  ask  what  next. 
"Look  at  zee  fish!"  was  the  invariable  answer  re- 
peated often  for  days  and  even  weeks  before  this 
master-observer  who  said  "Learn  from  nature,  not 
books !"  was  ready  to  let  the  tyro  begin  more  ambi- 
tious work.  If  an  ordinary  fish  was  worthy  of  all 
that  observation  how  much  more  should  the  same  pa- 
tient observation  be  due  from  the  teacher  to  the 
special  pupil !  He  is  the  most  wonderful  creation  in 
all  the  world,  the  epitome  of  all  the  limitless  past 
and  possessing  besides  something  new  that  defies  all 
traditional  methods  and  principles  of  teaching. 
What  that  peculiarity  is  which  will  henceforth  take 
its  place  in  the  creative  evolution  of  the  future 
world,  can  be  found  only  by  the  closest,  most  sys- 
tematic and  thorough  observation  by  the  teacher. 

Yet  how  hard  it  is  to  see  a  child !    He  is  such  a 
wild  shy  creature,   untamed,   undomesticated  and 

190 


THE   TEACHER'S   DIAGNOSIS       191 

unused  to  the  ways  of  society.  One  must  steal  upon 
him  unawares  and  watch  him  in  his  native  habitat 
to  see  him  as  he  really  is.  Among  adults  he  is  in 
captivity.  Only  in  unrestricted  play  does  he  reveal 
his  true  nature.  Under  the  teacher's  eye  he  is  likely 
to  try  to  be  something  different  from  what  he  is. 
That  is  the  first  difficulty.  Then  there  is  the  social 
inheritance  of  the  child  showing  itself  obviously  in 
his  clothes,  his  manners  and  the  care  of  his  body. 
Through  these  veils  we  find  ourselves  peering  back 
into  his  home  and  into  his  parentage,  and  being  af- 
fected in  our  estimate  of  his  mentality  by  these 
draperies  that  cling  so  closely  to  him. 

One  day  a  teacher  brought  two  of  her  pupils  to 
a  clinic.  They  were  both  girls  about  ten  years 
of  age.  Both  were  backward  and  in  the  ungraded 
class.  The  teacher  was  clear  in  her  conviction  that 
Claire  was  far  superior  in  her  mentality  to  Meg. 

Claire  was  a  sweet  child.  Her  presence  breathed 
sainthood.  Her  fellow  pupils  had  nicknamed  her 
"St.  Anne."  Her  hair  was  smooth  and  glossy  and 
the  ribbon  that  held  it  back  from  her  brow  was 
stiff  and  new;  her  gray  checkered  coat  was  new; 
her  dark  blue  dress  was  of  good  material  and  with- 
out a  spot  or  blemish  or  extra  wrinkle;  her  shoes 
were  polished ;  around  her  wrists  and  neck  she  wore 
bits  of  white  lace,  and  a  locket  hung  on  her  bosom 
from  its  gold  chain.  Her  skin  was  clear  and  white 
and  her  large,  violet,  sadly-solemn  eyes  looked  out 
from  her  oval  face,  with  the  heavenly  look  of  a 


192  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

medieval  Madonna.  Sanctity  warmed  with  ami- 
ability, and  passivity  tempered  with  docility  radi- 
ated from  the  personality  of  this  quiet  little  girl 
and  immediately  enlisted  the  sympathy  of  every  one 
who  came  into  her  presence. 

Meg  was  the  extreme  opposite  of  the  saintly 
Claire.  She  was  a  brunette,  a  vigorous  intense 
one;  eyes  deep-set  and  gleaming  out  from  under 
her  shock  of  cropped  straight  hair  that  came  down 
on  her  low  forehead  to  her  straight  heavy  eye- 
brows. Her  clothes  were  poor,  ill-fitting,  old,  dirty. 
Her  dress  was  black,  bare  of  cuffs  or  collar;  her 
shoes  were  worn  and  scarred ;  her  appearance  was 
unrelieved  by  ornament ;  her  personality  expressive 
of  energy  shot  forth  in  nervous  jets  of  temper 
verging  on  rebellion.  To  look  at  her  gave  one  the 
feeling  of  approaching  a  spiny  creature,  of  walking 
on  broken  jagged  glass. 

When  the  cold  hard  tests  of  science  were  ap- 
plied to  measure  the  mentality  of  these  two  girls  it 
was  found  that  Meg  was  decidedly  the  better.  Her 
future  was  the  more  promising.  She  had  in  her 
undeveloped  potentialities,  germs  of  capabilities 
that  could  be  trained  into  serviceable  activities.  Her 
energies  needed  harnessing  and  directing.  Claire 
had  no  hidden  resources.  She  was  good  because 
she  was  not  bad;  not  because  she  overcame  evil 
with  good.  She  had  nothing  in  her.  Her  appear- 
ance was  due  to  well-to-do  parents,  especially  to  a 
painstaking  mother.     Meg  had  no  mother.     She 


THE   TEACHER'S   DIAGNOSIS      193 

lived  with  an  aunt.  She  had  to  dress  herself  and 
also  two  of  her  small  cousins  and  to  do  some  house- 
work to  pay  for  her  living.  When  she  had  time  she 
played  in  the  streets.  Contrasts  between  these  two 
girls  were  due  to  accidents  and  incidents ;  accidents 
of  social  inheritance  and  environment;  and  inherited 
qualities  like  complexion,  features  and  tempera- 
ments which  were  mere  incidents  to  learning. 

Obviously  the  teacher  in  charge  of  these  two 
girls  did  not  see  these  girls  as  pupils.  She  did  not 
look  through  the  exteriors  and  see  behind  the  veil 
of  clothes  and  manners,  through  her  own  conven- 
tions and  preperceptions  into  the  minimum  essen- 
tials of  her  teaching.  Those  essentials  for  the 
teacher  were,  first,  the  powers  or  processes  of  the 
mind,  inborn  or  developed,  which  were  already 
there;  and  secondly,  the  potentialities  that  might 
yet  be  developed.  These  and  only  these  were  im- 
portant to  her.  The  clothes,  manners,  homes,  and 
other  accessories,  were  merely  so  many  signs  of 
the  presence  or  absence  of  the  essentials.  The  dis- 
covery and  measurement  of  these  potentialities  is 
a  mental  diagnosis,  described  in  the  last  chapter. 
The  study  of  mental  process  is  now  the  task 
of  the  teacher  and  she  may  well  begin  it  by  finding 
out  something  of  the  mental  content  in  the  minds 
she  is  expected  to  teach. 

Mental  Content. — ^The  first  thing  a  teacher  1 
should  discover  about  a  backward  child  is  how  much  ^ 
he  knows.     Some  backward  children  are  marvels 


194  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

of  brilliancy  in  some  respects  and  utterly  incapable 
in  others.  Their  mental  defect  is  not  general  but 
special  and  peculiar,  showing  itself  in  total  igno- 
rance of  only  certain  branches,  and  it  must  be 
studied  thoroughly  by  the  teacher  before  she  can 
proceed.  Mathematical  and  musical  prodigies  are 
frequently  utterly  unlearned  in  other  sciences.  A 
young  man  recently  died  in  an  asylum,  who  in  some 
respects  was  a  prodigy  of  learning  and  a  genius  in 
intellect.  He  could  recite  whole  pages  from  Shake- 
speare, Milton  or  other  classic  writers  after  he  had 
once  heard  them  recited  on  the  stage  or  elsewhere. 
Yet  he  was  utterly  deficient  in  other  branches  of 
learning,  and  it  was  even  doubtful  if  he  could  read. 
One  of  the  finest  wood-model  makers  in  the  world 
is  in  an  institution  for  feeble-minded  in  England. 
He  received  a  prize  for  a  perfect  and  complete 
model  of  the  Great  Eastern,  every  mast,  spar,  rope, 
block  and  bit  of  furniture  of  which  is  faithfully 
reproduced,  all  requiring  the  use  of  about  a  million 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  pegs  which 
he  himself  fashioned  on  a  machine  of  his  own  in- 
vention. These  are  a  few  striking  examples  of  what 
are  encountered  in  less  exaggerated  forms  every 
term  in  any  special  class.  The  same  extreme  irregu- 
larities and  mental  defects  may  not  occur,  but  large 
and  sometimes  surprising  deficiencies  are  discovered 
by  a  systematic  examination. 

How  perfectly  ridiculous  it  would  be  to  teach 
memory-gems  to  the  genius  in  classics  and  manual 


THE   TEACHER'S   DIAGNOSIS       195 

training  to  the  model-maker!  And  how  equally 
futile  it  would  be  to  reverse  the  order  of  subjects 
and  start  the  classical  genius  in  manual  training  with 
the  Great  Eastern  and  the  model-maker  with  Mil- 
ton's Paradise  Lost! 

The  content  of  a  pupil's  mind  must  be  measured, 
first,  to  avoid  the  obvious  waste  of  learning  what 
is  old;  and  secondly,  for  the  less  obvious  necessity 
involved  in  learning  anything  new.  All  learning 
is  leavening.  The  leaven  transmits  the  fresh  dough 
into  a  substance  similar  to  itself.  In  learning  we 
call  the  process  "assimilation  of  knowledge,"  and 
the  leaven  the  '^apperceptive  mass."  The  new 
knowledge  must  be  assimilable.  An  ordinary  child 
can  no  more  get  an  idea  from  the  word  "chimera" 
than  leaven  can  leaven  a  stone.  "Chimera"  must 
first  be  translated  into  "lion's  head"  and  "goat's 
body"  before  he  will  understand,  and  then  only  if 
he  knows  what  a  lion's  head  and  a  goat's  body  are 
like. 

The  first  and  most  obvious  method  of  finding 
what  is  in  a  child's  mind  is  to  ask  him.  It  requires 
natural  tact  and  much  skill,  but  it  would  seem  to 
be  an  essential  part  and  art  of  teaching  to  do  it. 
The  ordinary  daily  review  of  yesterday's  lesson  is 
one  method.  School  examinations  should  give  a 
systematic,  accurate  and  fairly  complete  account 
of  the  pupil's  knowledge  of  school  subjects  but  they 
fail  to  give  any  estimate  of  what  a  child  knows 
about  common  things,  and  they  do  not  prove  that 


196  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

he  has  a  clear  idea  because  he  uses  the  proper 
words  in  a  correct  answer. 

The  Child's  Interests. — The  teacher  may  ap- 
proach the  pupil  with  this  thought  in  her  mind, 
"How  shall  I  interest  him  in  the  lesson?"  or,  with 
the  antipodal  query,  **In  what  is  this  pupil  inter- 
ested?'' The  former  attitude  is  that  of  the  mother 
who  brought  her  nine-year-old  boy  to  a  specialist 
who  found  him  apparently  a  ruddy,  healthy,  nor- 
mal-minded boy  in  every  way.  The  specialist  finally 
inquired  why  she  had  brought  him,  and  was  amazed 
to  hear  that  the  mother  held  the  gravest  fears  for 
her  son's  future  because  she  had  discovered,  though 
it  nearly  broke  her  heart  to  say  it,  that  he  was  a 
degenerate!  The  specialist,  dumfounded  for  the 
moment,  asked  the  agitated  woman  her  reasons  for 
such  a  terrible  suspicion.  Then  she  related  how 
she  herself  was  trying  to  educate  her  boy  by  an 
ideal  method  which  would  inculcate  in  him  an  early 
love  for  the  true,  the  good  and  the  beautiful.  Part 
of  his  education  consisted  of  daily  visits  to  a 
museum  near  his  home,  where  there  was  a  magnifi- 
cent collection  of  the  choicest  paintings  from  the 
best  masters.  Here  she  endeavored  to  instil  estheti- 
cism  into  her  boy  by  having  him  sit  quietly  in  the 
art-rooms,  a  different  one  each  day,  and  absorb  art. 
But,  and  here  the  poor  woman  almost  broke  down 
in  her  anguish,  the  boy  seemed  utterly  indifferent 
to  the  beauty  round  about  him  and  completely  im- 
mune to  that  method  of  esthetic  infection.    Instead 


THE   TEACHER'S    DIAGNOSIS       197 

of  silently  devouring  the  masterpieces,  he  would 
grow  restless,  beg  her  to  go,  would  pull  at  her 
skirts,  and  by  every  artifice  he  knew  would  try  to 
inveigle  her  to  the  cases  where  the  swords,  daggers, 
spears,  guns  and  other  weapons  were  kept,  where 
he  would  stand  for  hours  feasting  his  eyes  on 
these  instruments  of  blood  and  destruction.  It  took 
all  the  skill  of  the  expert  to  convince  that  good 
woman  that  her  boy  was  entirely  normal  and  that 
he  was  merely  passing  through  a  periodic  instinc- 
tive sta;^e  of  his  life. 

To  that  woman  it  was  a  revelation  to  find  that 
children  were  naturally  interested  in  certain  objects 
and  certain  subjects  at  certain  ages,  and  that  she 
was  attempting  the  impossible  when  she  was  trying 
to  inject  into  him  certain  feelings  which  were  not 
yet  there.  Of  course,  this  mother  knew,  as  every 
one  else  does,  that  there  are  great  permanent  in- 
stincts in  human  beings  that  run  through  their 
whole  lives.  The  aversion  to  pain  and  desire  for 
pleasure  are  two  such  fundamental  feelings.  With- 
out them  it  would  be  impossible  to  build  any  edu- 
cation or  to  enforce  any  discipline.  Imitation  is 
another  wide-spreading  instinct.  Its  roots  lie  in 
gregariousness  which  makes  people  flock  together. 
The  first  instinct  ornaments  and  embellishes  with 
morality,  patriotism,  religion,  custom  and  art  what 
the  second  founds.  Many  more  of  the  same  kind 
might  be  mentioned  but  they  are  not  important  for 
the  teacher,  who,  in  her  analysis  of  a  single  child, 


198  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

can  take  their  existence  for  granted.  The  fact  that 
some,  indeed  many,  instincts  are  universal  and  per- 
manent must  not  obscure  the  fact  that  many  are 
also  transitory. 

By  transitory  we  mean  that  certain  consuming 
interests  of  a  child's  life  will  rise  to  a  climax,  claim 
all  of  his  attention  and  fire  all  of  his  plans,  and 
then  die  down  and  disappear  quite  naturally  and 
without  any  external  aid  or  suppression  from  any 
one.  To  diagnose  such  a  case  and  to  know  when 
the  infection  with  a  certain  set  of  instincts  has 
taken  place,  to  follow  them  in  their  period  incuba- 
tion, and  to  seize  their  power  when  they  reach  their 
climax  and  bind  this  flood-tide  of  power  to  some 
subject  which  will  be  then  learned  so  as  never  again 
to  be  forgotten,  demands  the  genius  and  skill  of  a 
great  teacher.  If  the  lesson  is  thrust  on  the  child 
too  early  it  may  not  take,  and  what  is  worse,  it  may 
render  him  immune  to  any  later  infection  by  the 
same  subject;  if  the  lesson  is  delayed  it  will  fall  list- 
lessly on  a  mind  whose  interest  in  it  is  as  sear 
and  dead  as  the  autumn  leaf.  Most  anxiously  then 
should  the  dominant  instinct  of  any  child  be  sought 
in  the  teacher's  diagnosis. 

The  instinctive  life  of  children  changes  from 
individual  to  individual.  They  do  not  all  have  the 
same  instincts,  and  they  do  not  all  have  them  in 
the  same  intensity.  Nothing  is  more  common  than 
that  if  we  only  stop  to  think  of  it.     It  makes  the 


THE   TEACHER^S   DIAGNOSIS      199 

fundamental  differences  in  people,  in  their  charac- 
ters and  in  their  professions,  in  all  the  little  inci- 
dents and  traits  that  go  to  differentiate  one  indi- 
vidual from  another.  Inborn  differences  take  one 
boy  from  the  farm  and  make  him  a  rover  of  the 
seas,  another  a  student,  another  a  mechanic,  while 
other  differences  make  him  the  keeper  of  the  old 
homestead  and  the  tiller  of  the  soil.  One  boy  has 
the  fighting  instinct  in  him  and  will  work  hard  in 
a  contest ;  another  lacks  it  and  will  do  his  best  when 
alone.  These  primary  interests  manifesting  them- 
selves in  the  impulses  of  childhood,  the  tastes  of 
individuals,  the  foibles  and  crotchets  of  children, 
must  be  all  considered  when  the  special  teacher  is 
undertaking  the  training  of  a  child  who  has  failed 
in  the  regular  grades  where  uniformity  has  been 
the  rule.  Perhaps  in  any  one  of  these  impulses  she 
may  find  the  key  to  unlock  the  child's  mind  and  thus 
make  him  a  scholar. 

Some  scientists  believe  that  the  change  of  in- 
stinctive life  follows  a  law.  Instincts  seem  to  come 
and  go  in  periods.  These  periods  are  thought  to 
follow  and  repeat  the  social  history  of  the  race  in 
its  climb  from  savagery  to  civilization.  Therefore 
it  need  surprise  no  one  to  find  that  a  boy  is  a  little 
savage  or  a  barbarian  in  his  tastes  and  interests. 
Whether  this  theory  is  true  or  not  need  not  con- 
cern the  teacher,  except  as  it  again  suggests  study 
to  find  in  what  particular  period  any  particular 


200  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

child  is  at  the  time  she  receives  him,  and  as  it  em- 
phasizes the  fact  that  not  all  instincts  are  permanent 
and  fixed. 

To  summarize,  instincts  are  permanent  or  tran- 
sient, universal  and  particular.  They  vary  from 
individual  to  individual,  and  they  vary  from  time 
to  time  in  the  same  individual.  These  variations 
seem  to  follow  a  periodic  law  that  leads  the  child 
to  reiterate  the  history  of  the  race. 

A  General  Instinct. — Play  is  an  instinct  so 
widely  diiffused  that  healthy  children  are  lost  in  it 
from  the  time  their  eyes  open  in  the  morning  until 
their  heavy  lids  fall  like  shadows  of  the  evening. 
All  children  play,  play  when  they  are  let  loose  from 
factories  and  when  their  bloodless  muscles  seem  in- 
capable of  any  more  exertions.  Sad  it  is  to  see 
them;  as  sad  as  to  see  the  momentary  brightening 
of  a  sick  child  when  its  dear  familiar  toys  are 
brought  to  its  bedside,  perhaps  for  the  last  time. 
Play  is  a  stimulant  when  all  the  doctor's  lore  fails 
and  his  medicines  lose  their  potency.  For  children 
are  like  Juvenal's  ancient  Romans  who  cared  for 
nothing  except  bread  and  games;  and  sometimes 
they  are  so  ardent  for  it  that  they  imitate  Voltaire's 
French  who  "omitted  the  panem'' — bread — because 
of  the  heart-of -hearts'  truth  that  play  is  the  realest 
world  the  child  will  ever  find  in  his  earthly  seeking. 
Wise  indeed  is  the  teacher  who  dares  to  follow 
Locke's  advice  and  to  make  everything  that  chil- 
dren have  to  do  sport  and  play.     For  the  special 


THE   TEACHER^S    DIAGNOSIS      201 

class,  without  doubt,  all  tasks  must  be  games  and 
all  lessons  stories;  one  the  play  of  muscles,  the  other 
the  play  of  minds.  To  be  sure  that  this  will  not 
be  misunderstood  by  those  who  have  never  entered, 
or  having  entered  have  forgotten,  this  portion  of 
heaven,  let  me  say  that  play  is  not  amusement,  not 
even  pleasure  alone,  but  the  outpouring  of  all  one's 
strength  to  accomplish  what  one  desires  with  all  his 
might.  Once  in  a  while  a  teacher's  attention  is  ar- 
rested by  a  harmony  in  her  schoolroom,  when  the 
spirit  of  work  prevails  in  it  and  all  the  air  is 
freighted  with  spontaneous  activity,  when  every 
head  is  bent  over  book  or  paper,  and  the  hum  of 
labor  is  as  the  humming  of  bees  in  the  blooming 
willow-trees  in  spring.  Three  sum^mers  ago  I 
stepped  for  a  minute  into  a  manual-training  class 
where  eighteen  pupils  were  all  busy,  each  one  mak- 
ing a  different  article,  while  the  teacher  was  sitting 
silently  by  the  window.  All  were  at  play.  She 
had  achieved  the  play-spirit  in  a  class-exercise  and 
it  was  a  perfect  schoolroom. 

Some  Particular  Instincts. — Not  only  do 
great  chains  of  similar  likes  and  dislikes  run  through 
mankind,  some  to  bind  individuals  together,  and 
some  to  form  common  links  between  young  and  old, 
all  of  which  exhibit  themselves  in  the  presence  of 
a  variety  of  objects,  but  there  are  also  particular 
interests  that  are  aroused  only  on  the  presenta- 
tion of  their  own  peculiar  stimulations.  Here  is 
a  profuseness  of  innate  interests  among  which  we 


202  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

can  find  inspirers  of  interest  for  every  variety  of 
study  conceivable.  Yet  how  frequently  do  we  hear 
a  teacher  say  she  *'has  exhausted  every  effort  to 
arouse  some  torpid  pupil !"  Surely,  she  must  mean 
that  she  has  exhausted  her  own  stock  of  knowledge 
on  particular  instincts,  or  else  her  own  ingenuity 
for  bringing  lessons  within  striking  distance  of 
these  highly  charged  motives  to  endeavor.  For  the 
instincts  themselves  are  innumerable  and  each  one 
of  them  can  be  aroused  by  an  indefinite  number  of 
objects.  To  illustrate  merely  what  they  are,  let  us 
take  hunger.  It  is  present  in  all  children  above 
idiots.  The  sight  of  food  will  always  arouse  a 
hungry  child  and  the  sight  of  sweets  nearly  always 
any  child.  Fire  is  another  interesting  object,  one 
which  through  many,  many  generations  of  sylvan 
tribes  has  bound  itself  up  with  the  nervous  systems 
of  our  race  so  that  its  leaping  flames  and  glowing 
embers  have  in  them  a  weirdness  sure  to  strike  an 
answering  note  in  children.  They  all  like  to  play 
with  fire.  Water, — ^where  must  mothers  always 
look  for  their  runaway  boys  if  a  river  or  lake  is 
near?  Mud  or  clay  has  its  own  particular  charm. 
Trees  call  forth  an  answering  challenge  to  boys 
when  their  apish  instincts  are  ripe.  Stones  to  throw; 
are  nearer  to  nature  than  their  cousins,  balls.  Food, 
water,  earth,  trees,  sticks,  stones,  all  these  com- 
monest  objects  of  life  are  the  ones  that  dwell  near- 
est the  depths  of  children's  souls  and  answer  to  the 
call  of  hidden  and  mysterious  forces  in  them.  These 


JHE   JEACHER^S   DIAGNOSIS      203 

then  should  become  the  paraphernalia  of  the  school- 
room, the  quiver  of  the  teacher  who  is  armed  for 
every  emergency.  Out  of  them  can  be  and  ought 
to  be  fabricated  literally  numberless  toys  and  in- 
struments for  developing  and  modifying  the  primi- 
tive traits  which  must  be  softened  down  and 
smoothed  to  fit  the  modern  civilized  world. 

Temperaments. — Closely  allied  to  instincts  are 
emotions  or  feelings.  Nothing  about  a  child  is 
more  changeable  than  his  humors.  Smiles  and  tears 
chase  one  another  across  his  face  like  storm  and 
sunshine  across  April  skies.  Yet  it  is  true  that  each 
possesses  a  general  disposition  toward  one  humor 
or  another  and  that  we  will  call  his  temperament. 

About  temperament  in  the  ordinary  schoolroom, 
we  know  but  little  and  reckon  with  less.  The 
reason  is  obvious.  The  system  fits  the  average  child 
and  no  room  is  left  for  consideration  of  special 
tempers  or  temperaments.  But  the  special  class  is 
"speciaF'  for  ''special"  children,  and  here  tempera- 
ment becomes  of  mighty  importance.  Where  the 
ordinary  teacher  notes  it  incidentally,  or  hears  of  it 
from  the  anxious  mother  visiting  the  school  for  the 
sole  purpose  of  impressing  the  fact  of  X's  peculiar 
''temperament"  on  the  weary  schoolmistress  who 
considers  her  duty  well  done  when  she  suppresses 
the  same  peculiarity,  the  special-class  teacher  studies 
it  with  care  and  skill  and  into  each  pupil's  tempera- 
ment she  will  fit  herself  and  her  methods  of  en- 
couragement or  suppression.     Possibly  as  good  3. 


204  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

description  of  the  various  temperaments  as  can  be 
found  is  the  well-worn  one  of  sanguine,  melancholy, 
choleric  and  phlegmatic,  with  the  combinations  that 
may  arise  from  tinctures  of  these  being  mixed  in 
the  same  child.  The  first  is  the  hoj)eful  child 
always  bobbing  up  with  great  promises  of  the  fu- 
ture, hard  to  be  made  to  see  the  need  of  present 
persistent  application  and  needing  almost  constant 
suppression.  His  melancholy  brother  is  just  the 
opposite.  He  must  be  guarded  from  criticism  as  a 
tender  plant  from  a  hail-storm.  He  grows  in  the 
sunshine  of  praise.  The  choleric  boy  is  the  hard 
one  to  manage  for  his  temper  flares  up  in  a  moment. 
"Coolness !  coolness !  coolness !''  is  the  constant  ex- 
hortation to  him.  The  phlegmatic  boy  is  hard  to 
move  by  praise  or  blame,  hard  to  excite,  hard  to 
impress  and  readily  acquires  a  reputation  for  im- 
penetrable laziness.  Usually  he  is  good-natured 
about  it  all  and  often  has  a  knack  of  sticking  to  a 
task  that  demonstrates  afresh  the  fable  of  the  mas- 
ter-phlegmatic tortoise  and  the  hare.  These  tem- 
peramental differences  are  really  the  ones  empha- 
sized by  parents  when  they  aver  that  "none  of  their 
children  are  alike.''  They  make  a  brave  attempt 
under  the  guise  of  justice,  to  treat  each  child  alike 
no  matter  if  he  is  entirely  different  from  the  rest. 
Their  zealous  though  mistaken  attempts  are  some- 
times softened  with  charity  and  much  love,  but 
seldom  with  enough  of  either.  They  should  temper 
them  even  more  with  the  thought  that  the  tempera- 


THE  TEACHER'S   DIAGNOSIS      205 

ment  of  the  child  comes  direct  from  his  parents,  a 
thing  inherited  with  his  nose  and  eyes  and  color  of 
his  hair.  The  special  teacher  of  the  backward  child 
must  recognize  the  differences  and  must  adjust  her- 
self to  them  with  all  the  exhilarating  freedom  of 
individual  teaching. 

The  significance  of  temperament  for  the  teacher 
is  seen  in  the  fact  that  people  think  as  they  feel. 
**White"  suggests  orange-blossoms  or  tombstones, 
according  to  the  feeling  of  the  hearer.  "It  snows !'' 
brings  a  "Hurrah"  from  the  healthy  boy;  a  "Dear, 
how  lucky"  from  the  pleasure-seeking  belle ;  an  "Oh, 
God!"  from  the  heavy-laden  widow.  AH  these 
ideas  came  from  "It  snows!";  each  one  came  in 
answer  to  the  feeling  of  the  subject.  If  the  person 
is  melancholy,  sanguine,  choleric  or  phlegmatic,  his 
associations  of  ideas  will  be  more  or  less  directed 
by  this  temperament;  he  will  see  things  in  his  en- 
vironment congruous  with  it ;  and  he  will  remember 
harmoniously  with  it.  A  study  of  temperament  is, 
therefore,  part  of  a  teacher's  diagnosis. 

The  Perceptive  Processes. — Once  she  has 
found  what  a  pupil  is  primarily  and  most  constantly 
interested  in,  the  teacher  is  ready  for  her  next  ques- 
tion, "How  does  he  learn — by  eye,  ear,  or  hand?" 
Some  children  learn  chiefly  through  their  eyes  and 
are  called  visual  types.  They  must  see  a  thing  and 
then  they  recall  the  picture  of  it  in  their  minds.  Oth- 
ers learn  by  ear,  or  are  auditory  types.  They  must  be 
told  and  recall  what  they  remember  by  hearing  it. 


206  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

Some  are  kinesthetic,  or  motor  types.  They  seize 
upon  their  knowledge  chiefly  with  their  hands  and 
store  it  up  in  their  muscles  and  motor-nervous  mech- 
anism. Absolutely  pure  types  of  any  one  of  the  three 
enumerated  are  almost  never  found.  Children 
learn  through  the  eye,  ear,  nose,  mouth,  hand  and 
body  muscles;  but  it  often  happens  that  a  child  is 
predominatingly  one  type  or  the  other  and  a  teacher 
succeeds  marvelously  by  studying  which  faculty  is 
dominant  and  working  accordingly. 

Examples  of  each  kind  of  child  show  how  the 
neglect  of  this  simple  fact  of  innate  differences  in 
perceiving  and  remembering  has  led  to  more  than 
one  tragic  ending  of  a  child*s  school  career.  In- 
stead I  will  confine  myself  to  a  brief  statement  of 
some  few  facts  that  have  been  collected  by  Doctor 
Elmer  E.  Jones,  which,  quite  in  harmony  with  the 
very  recent  study  of  personal  difference  in  the  inborn 
capacities  of  children,  illustrate  this  special  sense- 
difference.  Thirty-six  pupils  in  the  eighth  grade  of  a 
public  school  were  permitted  to  look  at  ten  familiar 
objects  for  a  second  and  a  half  and  then  were  asked 
to  recall  what  they  had  seen.  The  divergencies  in  the 
results  were  amazing.  The  lowest  record  was  two 
and  six-tenths  and  the  highest  seven  and  four- 
tenths;  that  is,  children  assigned  the  same  les- 
sons and  expected  to  learn  them  by  the  same 
methods  varied  nearly  threefold  in  their  capaci- 
ties to  perceive  quickly  and  accurately,  and  to 
recall  faithfully  the  things  they  saw.     Such  a  test 


THE   JEACHER^S    DIAGNOSIS      207 

feasible  in  any  schoolroom  with  the  simplest  kind 
of  apparatus,  will  tell  with  fair  certainty  whether 
a  child  is  a  visualizer  or  not. 

The  same  thirty-six  children  were  tested  for  their 
auditory  memory.  Ten  lists  of  names  of  common 
objects  were  read  to  the  class  and  each  one  was  to 
write  down  what  he  remembered.  The  lowest  rec- 
ord averaged  three  and  a  half  and  the  highest  nine 
and  seven-tenths,  showing  that  some  children  pos- 
sessed nearly  three  times  the  power  to  receive  and 
to  recall  auditory  stimulations  that  the  others  had. 
While  the  experiments  did  not  show  that  good  vis- 
ualizers  were  necessarily  good  auditors,  nor  vice 
versa,  they  did  seem  to  show  that  children  early 
form  the  habit  of  learning  chiefly  by  ear  or  by  eye. 

Another  group  of  children  was  given  each  a  cer- 
tain sound  and  asked  immediately  to  respond  to  it  by 
a  specified  act.  This  test  measured  power  of  atten- 
tion, fatigue,  quickness  of  reaction,  and  other  quali- 
ties. Again  the  greatest  differences  came  out.  Some 
reacted  three  and  a  half  times  faster  than  others; 
some  were  slow  and  regular ;  some  rapid,  but  unreli- 
able. Is  it  necessary  to  add  the  obvious  that  each 
child  should  have  the  lesson  presented  to  him  so  that 
he  can  apprehend  it  in  the  easiest  and  quickest  way? 
One  must  read  it  with  his  own  eyes ;  another  must 
hear  it  from  some  one  else;  another  must  write  it 
out.  Usually,  since  each  child  is  a  mixture  of  the 
three  types,  each  child  should  receive  the  lesson  by 
eye,  ear  and  hand  whenever  that  is  possible.     It 


208  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

certainly  is  safe  to  say  that  all  the  children  should 
not  be  compelled  to  learn  the  lesson  one  way,  and 
one  way  only. 

Intellectual,  Emotional  and  Volitional  Chil- 
dren.— Closely  allied  to  this  division  made  ac- 
cording to  perceptive  methods  is  another  which 
rests  on  the  dominance  or  frequency  of  one  of 
the  three  great  processes  in  the  mental  life  of  the 
child,  thinking,  feeling  or  willing.  The  effects  of 
these  predominances  on  teaching  and  the  method 
of  discovering  to  which  type  a  pupil  belongs  is  in- 
dicated in  the  following  illustration. 

A  teacher  held  up  an  orange  before  her  class  and 
watched  the  effect  on  them  as  she  went  on  talking 
about  it.  Henry,  a  rather  cold,  languid,  triangular- 
faced  lad,  gave  a  glance  at  it  and  then  seemed  to 
pay  no  more  attention  to  it.  The  anxious  teacher 
was  somewhat  irritated  by  his  apparent  indifference 
to  her  well-planned  object-lesson,  but  she  went  on 
asking  questions  and  discussing  the  orange.  Sud- 
denly she  noted  by  Henry's  face  that  he  had  reached 
a  question  mark  in  his  mind. 

"What  is  it,  Henry?" 

"Was  Luther  Burbank  the  man  that  made  the 
Burbank  potato?"  was  the  unscientific  and  surpris- 
ingly irrelevant  question. 

A  moment's  consideration  revealed  that  Henry 
had  traveled  by  a  long  train  of  thought,  as  long  and 
complex  as  the  philosopher  Hobbes'  friend  who 
suddenly  interjected  the  apparently  trivial  question 


THE   TEACHER'S    DIAGNOSIS      209 

about  the  value  of  a  Roman  penny  into  a  discussion 
of  the  Crucifixion.  The  Crucifixion  had  suggested 
the  betrayal ;  the  betrayal,  the  pieces  of  money;  that, 
the  Roman  penny.  Henry  saw  the  orange,  thought 
of  California  or  the  seedless  orange;  then  of  Bur- 
bank,  then  of  the  potato.  Such  a  boy  belongs  to 
the  intellectual  type.  He  gets  knowledge  by  think- 
ing things  out  for  himself.  All  he  needs  is  a  start, 
some  suggestion  or  other,  and  lo,  his  train  of 
thought  has  pulled  out  of  the  station  on  a  long  and 
unknown  journey.    He  is  the  student  par  excellence. 

In  front  of  him  was  a  little  girl  who  seemed  all 
interest. 

"What  do  you  think  of  the  orange,  Mary?" 
asked  the  teacher. 

"I  got  a  little  baby-brother  at  home  and  he  likes 
oranges  and  when  my  mama  gives  him  an  orange 
he  gets  his  face  all  smeared  with  it!"  volubly  re- 
plied the  little  "mother"  and  it  would  be  easy  to  see 
the  trend  of  her  mind  toward  feelings,  even  if  she 
did  not  use  the  word  "likes."  Her  thoughts  are 
determined  by  her  emotions,  and  an  orange,  the 
same  object  that  carried  the  cold  Henry  off  to  Cali- 
fornia and  plunged  him  deep  into  science,  trans- 
ported Mary  to  her  home  and  the  treasures  there.  If 
the  teacher  wishes  ever  to  lodge  an  idea  so  it  will  re- 
main in  Mary's  mind,  she  must  surround  it,  over- 
lay it  and  hedge  it  in  with  emotional  associations; 
for  Mary  represents  the  emotional  type.  Her  read- 
ing should  tell  stories  of  human  pathos,  her  writing 


210  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

should  be  letters  to  folks  at  home ;  and  her  arithmetic 
must  figure  how  the  poor  widow  can  buy  clothes  for 
her  four  children  on  the  pittance  she  earns.  We 
can  not  hope  for  text-books  to  suit  every  type  of 
child,  but  we  can  hope  for  teachers  who  will  diag- 
nose their  children  and  will  have  ingenuity  enough 
to  fit  their  teaching  to  each  disposition. 

While  the  teacher  was  asking  these  questions, 
Tommy,  the  chubby,  freckle- faced,  red-haired  boy 
who  had  to  sit  on  the  front  seat  where  the  teacher 
could  watch  him,  was  nearly  wriggling  himself  to 
pieces.  He  could  hardly  keep  his  seat  under  the  al- 
most irresistible  impulse  to  grab  the  orange  in  both 
hands.  Every  time  the  teacher  raised  it,  his  hands 
involuntarily  went  up  too,  ready  to  catch  it. 

"Well,  Tommy,"  at  last  said  the  teacher,  "what 
are  you  bursting  to  say?" 

"I  climbed  the  tree  and  shook  the  apples  down, 
last  summer,  in  the  country,  and  the  limb  broke," 
he  exploded  in  a  breath.  Action,  vigorous  action 
all  the  way  through;  his  mind  explodes;  his  sen- 
tences shoot  out  promiscuously  and  illogically;  his 
thoughts  are  all  dynamic  with  motion.  He  wants 
to  seize  the  orange,  handle  it,  toss  it  up  in  the  air, 
climb  the  tree  it  grew  on.  Whatever  lessons  the 
teacher  wants  him  to  learn  must  be  full  of  action, 
learned  by  writing  them  on  the  blackboard,  if  pos- 
sible, where  plenty  of  movement  is  necessary,  or 
by  walking,  or  beating  time,  or  in  any  way  that 
will  lodge  the  thing  to  be  learned  in  his  muscles. 


JHE   TEACHER'S   DIAGNOSIS      211 

His  chief  organ  of  apprehension  is  his  hand  and  he 
will  take  and  hold  what  he  can  get  his  hands  on. 

These  three  children  are  extreme  types.  The  rest 
of  the  class  were  not  so  pronounced.  They  were 
mixtures  of  these,  partly  intellectual,  partly  emo- 
tional, partly  volitional.  It  demands  a  closer  ob- 
servation to  bring  out  which  process  dominated  with 
them,  but  it  can  be  done  by  simple  expedients  sim- 
ilar to  the  presentation  of  the  orange.  Elaborate 
tests  are  useful  and  have  their  places,  but  no  teacher 
need  wait  for  an  inventor  to  formulate  them,  nor 
an  expert  to  apply  them.  When  her  eyes  are  once 
open  to  such  typical  differences  in  pupils,  the  Hen- 
rys, Marys  and  Tommies  thrust  themselves  on 
her  attention.  From  these  exceptional  children 
often  come  the  backward  pupils  who  can  learn  by 
only  one  method. 

The  Intellectual  Processes. — When  a  child 
sees  "c-a-t"  and  can  from  those  letters  gain  the 
knowledge  "cat"  he  has  used  all  the  mental  proc- 
esses given  to  a  human  being.  This  is  true  for  the 
simplest  bit  of  knowledge  one  can  imagine.  The 
more  complex  acquisitions  are  but  repetitions  of 
these  simpler  processes  in  which  many  processes 
once  conscious  are  now  unconscious  habits.  Mental 
ability  of  a  high  order,  then,  depends  on  the  ra- 
pidity and  accuracy  with  which  this  simple  and  uni- 
tary process  of  knowing  is  performed  and  on  the 
ease  and  rapidity  with  which  it  becomes  habitual 
with  regard  to  certain  objects  and  certain  processes. 


212  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

Any  observer  can  get  a  glimpse  of  this  truth  by 
noting  how  exceedingly  difficult  is  the  first  step  of 
a  baby,  or  the  first  word  written  by  a  pupil,  and 
how  exceedingly  easy  are  the  most  complex  and 
intricate  intellectual  operations  to  one  who  has  prac- 
tised them  until  he  has  reduced  a  large  part  of  the 
operation  to  mere  habit.  The  real  conscious  ac- 
quisition of  knowledge,  the  real  ''learning  process" 
is  therefore  unitary  and  can  not,  strictly  speaking, 
be  separated  into  parts.  Certain  phases  of  it  can 
be  attended  to  by  an  observer,  and  these  phases  can 
be  named  perception,  memory,  imagination  and  rea- 
son, or  any  other  convenient  terms,  and  can  then 
be  considered  separately.  The  teacher,  however, 
need  not  carry  this  analysis  so  far  and  treat  it  so 
seriously  as  to  believe  that  certain  studies  will  in- 
volve only  certain  of  these  parts  and  not  other  parts. 
It  may  be  somewhat  difficult  to  see  reasoning  in 
consciously  securing  the  idea  cat  from  "c-a-t,"  but 
a  little  thought  will  convince  any  one  that  the  one 
who  recognizes  it  as  such  must  see  that  it  is  similar 
or  dissimilar  to  many  other  symbols.  It  is  similar 
to  the  symbol  he  studied  yesterday;  therefore,  it  is 
"cat"  to-day,  is  the  reasoning  involved  and  made 
explicit.  Mathematics,  which  is  a  shorthand  lan- 
guage, makes  this  reasoning  process,  usually  uncon- 
scious, prominent  and  noticeable.  It  therefore  is 
said  to  train  the  reason. 

An  analysis  of  these  higher  intellectual  processes, 
while  not  important  in  themselves  to  the  teacher, 


THE   TEACHER'S   DIAGNOSIS      213 

is  of  enormous  importance  when  applied  to  the  art 
of  her  profession.  We  have  already  seen  that  cer- 
tain children  belong  to  certain  types  because  of 
their  methods  of  perceiving.  The  same  classifica- 
tion also  applies  to  memory.  If  a  child  must  see 
an  object  in  order  to  know  it,  he  will  then  be  almost 
certain  to  recall  it  by  seeing  a  visual  memory-image 
of  it.  If  he  can  do  that  easily  and  quickly  he  will 
probably  make  a  good  scholar;  for  learning  by  eye 
and  recalling  what  is  learned  are  the  chief  require- 
ments of  schools  and  colleges  as  now  conducted. 
If  he  must  hear  what  he  learns,  he  will  recall  the 
sound  of  it.  As  this  method  is  not  so  prevalent  for 
giving  knowledge  he  may  be  handicapped  some- 
what. But  the  sorest  trial  is  reserved  for  the  motor- 
type  pupil  who  must  handle  things  to  know  them, 
or  must  write  words  to  grasp  ideas,  and  must  ex- 
press what  he  knows  in  action.  Though  he  may 
make  the  sure  scholar  he  is  usually  slower  and 
easily  falls  into  the  backward  class  of  pupils. 

Further,  memory  itself  can  be  analyzed  into  cer- 
tain phases.  To  say  that  a  child  has  a  poor  memory 
is  not  at  all  sufficient;  and  to  say  that  he  has  a  poor 
visual  memory  is  not  enough.  Possibly  the  trouble 
lies  in  his  vague  perceptions  due  to  some  physical 
defect  of  the  eyes.  When  the  lesson  is  presented 
to  him  properly  he  has  no  trouble  with  his  memory. 
Possibly  the  lesson  does  not  interest  him  and  it 
should  be  connected  more  closely  with  his  dominant 
instincts.    Then,  when  we  come  to  memory  proper, 


214  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

possibly  he  can  not  retain  what  he  learns ;  possibly 
he  can  not  recall  it  at  the  proper  time;  possibly  he 
can  not  recognize  it  when  it  is  recalled.  These 
subsidiary  parts  of  the  process  of  memory  are  so 
closely  related  that  just  as  with  the  great  processes 
of  consciousness,  they  can  not  be  disentangled  ex- 
cept for  consideration  and  for  correction  in  pupils 
with  poor  memories. 

This  discussion  leads  us  to  the  training  of  the 
memory.  With  so  much  popular  information  on 
the  subject,  it  may  be  difficult  to  say  anything  that 
is  not  already  known.  First,  it  should  be  noted 
that  we  have  the  simple,  natural  physiological  mem- 
ory which  acts  seemingly  automatically  in  recording 
an  object,  retaining  it  till  we  wish  to  have  it  again, 
recalling  it  and  recognizing  it.  Such  a  memory  is 
an  innate  power  and  it  can  not  be  increased  by  any 
amount  of  training.  Whatever  one  gains  in  one 
direction  he  loses  in  another.  Secondly,  we  have 
also  a  memory  organized  according  to  certain  laws 
of  association,  which  can  be  trained  to  remember 
certain  facts  which  we  now  habitually  forget.  That 
is  done  by  consciously  forming  links  of  association 
between  the  items  to  be  remembered.  These  links 
must  be  formed  according  to  the  laws  of  memory, 
the  first  and  most  general  of  which  is  the  law  of 
contiguity,  according  to  which  law  things  occurring 
in  the  mind  together  once,  tend  to  come  back  to- 
gether when  one  of  them  is  recalled.  Horse  and 
yvagon,  house  and  yard,   father  and  mother,  are 


THE   TEACHER'S    DIAGNOSIS      215 

joined  by  such  tendencies.  When  one  term  is  men- 
tioned the  one  that  comes  back  out  of  the  many  that 
are  possible,  will  be  determined  to  some  extent  by 
other  laws.  If  one  says  "teeth"  the  habit  of  tooth- 
brushing  may  make  one  think  of  brush;  if  this 
morning  he  bought  some  new  tooth-powder,  recency 
may  make  him  think  of  that;  if  yesterday  he  had 
a  painful  molar  filled,  intensity  may  make  him  think 
of  that;  if  he  is  feeling  particularly  bad,  senility 
and  death  may  come  to  him  through  the  interme- 
diate thought  of  the  loss  of  his  teeth.  A  special 
emotion,  like  a  permanent  temperamental  disposi- 
tion, will  affect  the  train  of  association  and  memory. 
To  train  the  memory  one  must  go  over  and  over 
a  lesson;  or  he  must  connect  it  so  vitally  with  his 
interests  or  instincts  that  one  impression  is  an  in- 
eradicable one  because  of  its  intensity;  or  he  must 
review  it  just  before  he  wants  it;  or  he  must  learn 
those  things  congruent  with  his  mood. 

Some  of  these  requirements  are  more  readily 
brought  under  control  than  others.  Repetition  is 
almost  the  sole  method  of  training  the  memory,  or 
of  learning,  in  the  schoolroom.  Sometimes  in- 
tense experiences  are  associated  with  the  thing  to 
be  learned  by  punishments  or  rewards.  Recency 
of  experience  is  insisted  on  by  demanding  a  re- 
view of  the  lesson  just  before  coming  to  class. 
Feelings  are  given  only  an  indirect  and  small  part 
in  the  matter. 

Of  the  associations  under  control  the  easiest  to 


216  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

use  for  memory-training  are  associations  by  sim- 
ilarity and  dissimilarity.  The  range  of  these  two 
relations  is  very,  very  wide,  running  through  all 
the  different  senses,  affecting  sights  and  sounds, 
pains  and  pleasures,  emotions  and  ideas.  It  seems 
so  easy  to  remember  things  that  are  like  something 
we  already  know,  or  opposite  to  what  we  know. 
Anywhere  we  meet  the  date  1492,  no  matter  in 
what  history,  it  is  an  old  friend  readily  taken  into 
the  family  of  facts  we  already  have.  "Tom  Camp- 
bell burned  natural  gas  at  Barcelona  Harbor,"  is 
full  of  similarities  for  me.  The  man's  name  is  as- 
sociated with  what  our  old  school-bell  used  to  say  to 
us  years  ago;  "b"  in  bell  and  burn  is  enough  to  re- 
mind me  of  burning  the  natural  gas;  *'bar"  and 
"har"  enough  to  locate  the  place.  The  schemes  that 
have  been  worked  out  are  almost  infinite  in  number 
and  variety,  but  they  all  base  their  claims  for  useful- 
ness on  the  laws  of  association,  especially  the  last 
two.  These  two  form  the  foundation  for  all  rea- 
soning. 

At  first  sight  the  statement  that  reasoning  and 
conscious,  deliberate  association  by  similarity  are 
the  same,  may  sound  strange,  but  I  am  sure  that 
a  little  reflection  by  any  one  will  give  enough  knowl- 
edge on  the  subject  to  cover  his  needs  in  analyzing 
the  mental  processes  of  a  pupil.  The  difference 
between  the  association  by  similarity  in  memory 
and  in  reasoning  comes  from  the  fact  that  in  mem- 
ory it  leads  to  facts  already  known  and  in  reasoning 


THE   TEACHER'S   DIAGNOSIS      217 

it  leads  to  truths  not  yet  known.  In  reasoning  it 
amounts  practically  to  imagination  with  imagina- 
tion putting  together  ideas  in  new  forms  instead  of 
putting  things  together  in  new  forms,  and  putting 
them  together  because  they  are  similar  rather  than 
for  any  other  purpose.  Thus  it  is  seen  how  easily 
the  higher  processes  of  the  mind  merge  together 
so  closely  that  they  defy  analysis.  It  is  enough  for 
the  teacher  to  note  the  processes  of  perception  and 
of  memory  and  to  study  these  in  each  pupil.  If 
she  does  that  wxll  she  will  be  able  to  suit  her  in- 
struction to  the  peculiarities  of  her  pupils,  which  is 
the  end  and  aim  of  her  diagnosis. 

It  is  of  more  importance  to  know  what  a  boy 
imagines  than  how  he  imagines.  His  imaginings 
throw  light  on  his  interests  and  reveal  the  instinc- 
tive stage  in  which  he  is  living.  The  same  is  true 
of  his  reasonings.  Both  of  them  will  show  the 
teacher  the  way  to  lodge  her  lessons  in  his  mind. 
An  ingenious  teacher  can  do  it,  and  the  way  to  do 
it  will  often  be  found  by  diagnosing  her  pupil. 

Happily,  in  the  American  schools  the  individual 
child  and  his  innate  peculiarities  are  being  under- 
scored for  an  emphasis  heretofore  only  dreamed 
of  but  never  really  hoped  for  by  progressive  edu- 
cators. New  tests  for  measuring  not  only  what  is 
in  his  mind  but  also  how  he  perceives,  remembers, 
imagines  and  reasons  are  being  formulated  as  rap- 
idly as  careful  investigation  and  wide  experiment 
will  permit.    Already  there  are  many  systems  ready 


218  BACKWARD   CHILDREN^ 

to  put  into  the  hands  of  the  teachers  for  diagnosing 
individual  children.  Both  of  the  emphases,  the  em- 
phasis upon  the  individual  and  the  emphasis  upon 
diagnosis,  have  long  been  explicit  in  teaching  back- 
ward children.  They  date  from  the  day  when  Doctor 
Itard  studied  the  wild-boy  of  France,  and  Doctor  Se- 
guin  set  up  his  first  class  to  teach  the  mentally 
defective  in  1837.  Teachers  in  institutions  for  the 
feeble-minded  would  not  know  how  to  proceed  with 
their  teaching  without  first  making  or  having  made 
a  thorough  diagnosis  of  each  child.  What  has  been 
found  in  these  fields  to  be  of  so  much  value  will 
surely  yield  results  when  applied  to  normal  children 
and  to  temporarily  backward  children. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  TEACHER  AND  EQUIPMENT  FOR  A  SPECIAL  CLASS 

A  COUNTRY  girl,  a  real  country  girl,  as  awk- 
ward and  unsophisticated  as  the  proverbial 
Liza  Ann  of  fiction  or  comedy,  one  day  presented 
herself  to  a  training  school  for  special  teachers  in 
a  large  city.  She  had  grown  up  on  a  farm,  taught 
school  in  a  one-room  country  schoolhouse,  heard 
something  about  teaching  backward  children  and 
out  of  the  "invisible  ether"  came  the  vision  of  her- 
self as  a  special  teacher.  Forthwith,  she  began  to 
investigate,  found  how  much  it  would  cost  to  take 
the  course,  saved  the  exact  amount,  and  one  day 
presented  herself  to  the  principal  of  the  training 
school. 

The  Teacher. — Needless  to  say  it  was  a  shock 
to  that  expert  trainer.  It  all  looked  so  hopeless  to 
her  who  knew  so  well  the  difficulty  in  that  great 
city  of  securing  positions  for  the  best  and  most 
promising  graduates,  the  need  of  personality,  the 
labor  of  the  training,  sometimes  the  weary  waiting 
after  the  training  was  over.  She  delicately  broached 
the  situation  to  the  applicant  and  was  appalled  when 
she  heard  how  little  money,  and  silenced  when  she 

219 


220  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

noted  how  much  confidence  this  raw  country  girl 
had  brought  with  her.  There  was  nothing  to  do 
but  enroll  her.  That  was  done  and  the  girl  took 
the  course. 

When  she  finished,  as  fortune  would  have  it,  a 
call  came  to  the  supervisor  for  a  special  teacher  to 
go  to  an  out-of-the-way  corner  of  the  city,  a  mis- 
carried subdivision,  sterile,  frustrated,  sparsely 
settled,  consisting  chiefly  of  the  school-building  and 
scattered  frame  dwellings  with  stretches  of  sand 
and  weeds  between  them.  Nobody  else  wanted  to 
go  there.  The  supervisor  thought  of  the  country 
graduate  and  wondered  if  she  dared  send  her.  The 
principal  out  there  was  a  friend  of  hers  and  she 
hated  to  serve  him  so,  but  something  had  to  be 
done  and  the  happy  country  girl  was  dispatched. 

For  two  weeks  the  supervisor  trembled  every  time 
the  telephone  bell  rang.  But  no  word  came  from 
the  suburb.  When  the  silence  became  no  longer 
bearable,  she  took  the  car  and  traveled  out  to  the 
school.  Her  friend,  the  principal,  resolutely  avoided, 
reference  to  the  new  teacher.  At  last  the  super- 
visor made  the  plunge.  "How-er  is  Miss  C,  the 
new  teacher  doing?''  she  ventured.  ^'Splendidly! 
Splendidly!"  was  the  principal's  breath-taking  re- 
joinder. "She's  a  wonder.  When  she  came  we 
gave  her  an  empty  room  and  ten  boys  nobody  could 
teach  or  -control.,  -She  sent  those  boys  out  to  scour 
the  country  for  lumber,  tin,  nails,  tools,  string  and 
everything  they  needed.    They  got  tools  from  home, 


THE  TEACHER  AND  EQUIPMENT      221 

begged  packing-boxes,  spent  their  own  money  for 
nails  and  before  long  they  had  that  room  finished 
and  equipped  in  a  home-made  but  up-to-date  man- 
ner and  were  busy  making  other  articles  they 
wanted.  Now  we  send  to  her  any  pupils  anybody 
has  any  trouble  with  and  she  adopts  them  into  the 
family  !'* 

And  to  make  the  truth  seem  still  more  like  fic- 
tion, the  country  girFs  class  carried  off  the  prize  in 
that  urban  school  system  for  the  best  exhibit  of 
special-class  work.  This  teacher  represents  both  a 
method  of  teaching  and  a  type  of  teacher. 

Her  Mental  Qualifications. — In  general  there 
may  be  said  to  be  two  types  of  teachers :  the  vital 
and  the  mechanical.  Of  these  two  the  special-class 
teacher  must  undoubtedly  belong  to  the  former. 
Many  reasons  urge  to"  that  conclusion.  A  few  are 
mentioned  here  and  many  more  will  suggest  them- 
selves to  the  reader.  First,  the  teacher's  field  is 
comparatively  new.  The  first  class  ever  organized 
for  the  deliberate  teaching  of  the  mental  defectives 
was  taught  by  Seguin  in  1837.  For  decades  after- 
ward such  instruction  was  limited  to  institutions  and 
unknown  to  the  public  schools.  Sporadic  classes 
occurred  earlier,  but  the  real  movement  for  special 
classes  in  public  schools  did  not  begin  until  the 
nineties  of  the  last  century.  A  score  of  years  would 
nearly  cover  their  history  in  this  country.  The 
field  is  hardly  more  than  touched ;  the  methods  are 
experimental;   invention   and   ingenuity   have   the 


222  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

widest  latitude  and  the  most  promising  opportuni- 
ties in  this  educational  realm.  The  teacher  must  be 
of  the  vital,  wide-awake,  facile,  inventive  type, 
eager  for  improvement  and  development  and  con- 
stitutionally opposed  to  routine.  Two  young 
women  go  to  a  college  for  specialized  training. 
One  fills  her  avid  note-book  full  of  detailed  notes. 
She  notes  that  singing  comes  at  9  :00  a.  m.  and  lasts 
six  and  a  half  minutes  on  Monday,  six  on  Tuesday ; 
six  and  a  half  on  Wednesday,  etc.;  that  for  clay 
modeling  the  children  are  given  wet  clay  on  news- 
papers; that  a  pupil  spoiled  one  piece  of  board  and 
threw  it  into  the  waste-basket ;  that  James  modeled 
a  turnip  by  beginning  at  the  bottom;  that  Harry's 
chalk  scratched  horribly  on  the  blackboard  and  Miss 
F.,  the  teacher,  never  seemed  to  notice  it,  etc.,  etc.,  ad 
infinitum.  These  illustrations  are  by  no  means  fanci- 
ful but  have  been  culled  from  teachers'  actual  notes 
made  on  their  observation  of  special-class  methods. 
On  the  other  hand,  here  is  a  young  girl  from 
a  mountain-town.  She  sees,  observes,  notes  and 
queries.  **Why  does  singing  come  first?"  ''How 
can  sand  be  kept  moist  in  a  sand  board?"  "Should 
boys  make  toy  guns,  swords,  spears?"  "At  what 
age  should  the  children  have  a  garden?"  Such  a 
type  of  mind  is  bound  to  get  down  to  the  bases  of 
methods  and  to  grasp  the  principles  of  teaching. 
From  such  inquiring  minds  have  always  come  the 
reformers  and  leaders  of  the  educational  world. 
Probably  there  is  room  for  both  kinds  of  minds  in 


THE  TEACHER  AND  EQUIPMENT      223 

general  teaching;  and  surely  the  ideal  teacher  of 
the  special  class  will  conform  to  the  thinking  type. 

Secondly,  the  teacher  must  always  be  further 
preparing  herself.  She  can  not  stop  for  a  year  or  a 
term  and  rest  on  the  fact  that  she  has  years  of  expe- 
rience behind  her.  Experience  here  does  not  count 
for  much.  Yesterday's  experience  is  supplanted  by 
to-day's  discoveries  and  the  yesterday's  static 
teacher  is  supplanted  by  to-day's  dynamic  one. 

A  third  reason  is  the  well-known  one  that  this 
kind  of  teacher  deals  with  individuals  rather  than 
classes.  Her  results  are  not  measured  in  terms  of 
grades,  amount  of  book-space  covered,  discipline  or 
schoolroom  order,  but  in  regenerated  lives  of  boys 
and  girls  who  came  to  her  hopelessly  bad  or  back- 
ward and  unfit  for  regular  classes  or  for  regular 
lives.  Her  work  is  wrought  on  them  individually, 
and  by  their  ability  to  come  back  to  class  and  take 
a  new  part  in  school  life  her  efficiency  is  determined. 
Her  stupid  scholars  can  not  be  relegated  to  a  back- 
ward class  and  her  bad  ones  must  not  be  expelled 
from  school. 

Her  Physical  Attributes. — Because  we  are  so 
much  bound  by  conventions  we  seldom  think  of  the 
physical  qualifications  for  any  teacher  as  after  all, 
very  vital.  We  see  so  many  types  of  women  and 
men,  weak  and  strong,  entering  the  profession,  suc- 
ceeding in  it,  and  working  even  down  to  the  day 
of  their  deaths  that  we  tend  to  discount  robust 
health  as  the  first  requisite  for  a  teacher  who  lives 


224  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

to  teach.  Still,  it  13  true  that  health  is  a  prime  es- 
sential for  any  teacher,  and  this  truth  is  doubly 
true  for  the  special  teacher.  Her  health  must  be 
of  that  impregnable,  unflagging,  unfatiguing  kind 
that  radiates  the  joy  of  living.  Headaches,  colds, 
blues,  stresses  and  strains,  fits  of  discouragement, 
discontent,  temper,  vague  aches  and  vaguer  long- 
ings, whims,  notions,  crotchets,  disagreeable  per- 
sonal traits  of  mind  and  character,  all  the  little  lux- 
uries of  life  that  other  people  may  allow  themselves 
and  still  succeed  must  be  resolutely  forbidden  to 
this  teacher.  Her  daily  life  must  be  a  poised  one; 
quiet,  serene,  free  from  worries  and  doubts  that 
come  from  constitutional  defects,  reigning  over  her 
flock  with  the  assured  power  of  personality  acting 
directly  and  without  apparent  means.  All  this  must 
be  reflected  in  her  every  movement  and  her  every 
tone.  One  who  has  only  seen  such  teachers  moving 
so  serenely  about  the  class-room  during  the  day  can 
guess  the  nervous  energy  and  absolute  self-control 
it  requires  to  keep  every  motion  precisely  regulated, 
every  tone  perfectly  modulated.  No  matter  what 
sudden  catastrophe  occurs,  whether  a  degenerate 
suddenly  flies  into  a  rage  and  slashes  his  neighbor 
with  a  knife  or  knocks  him  on  the  head  with  a 
hammer,  or  two  children  at  once  fall  down  in  epi- 
leptic fits,  the  teacher  must  remain  serene.  An  in- 
stant's failure  on  her  part  would  work  havoc  on 
her  nervously  unstable  brood.  Only  the  perfectly 
healthy  woman  can  be  ready  for  such  emergencies.., 


THE  TEACHER  AND  EQUIPMENT     225 

As  to  her  other  physical  quahfications,  like  size, 
age,  looks,  etc.,  they  are  secondary  to  healthy  poise. 

Temperament  of  the  Teacher. — With  the 
abounding  health  required  of  the  special  teacher, 
it  need  hardly  be  said  that  she  must  be  of  a  san- 
guine-phlegmatic temperament.  If  there  is  a  trace 
of  melancholy  in  her  constitution  it  will  surely  de- 
velop in  the  atmosphere  of  the  slow,  dull,  stupid, 
oftentimes  hopeless,  and  frequently  deformed  and 
afflicted  flotsam  and  jetsam  that  are  cast  by  the  ebb 
and  flow  of  pedagogical  tides  upon  her  hands.  Liv- 
ing in  such  an  atmosphere  requires  the  hopeful 
temperament  that  can  see  glimmerings  of  a  bright 
future  in  the  worst  cases  and  a  phlegmatism  that 
will  neither  wear  itself  out  in  useless  and  ceaseless 
strivings  for  the  impossible  nor  fret  itself  to  pieces 
against  the  infinite  worries  of  every  day.  To  these 
qualities  of  temper  must  be  added  a  motor  disposi- 
tion ;  the  desire  to  move  about,  not  hastily  nor  rest- 
lessly but  purposively  and  deliberately ;  to  get  things 
done,  to  organize,  to  push  forward  with  a  quiet  un- 
ceasing perseverance.  The  chief  emotional  element 
required  is  the  spirit  of  kindliness  that  naturally 
arises  from  a  healthy  body  and  a  willingness  to  do. 

The  Teacher's  Special  Training. — The  special 
fitting  of  a  special  teacher  for  her  work  should  be 
acquired  in  a  school  or  college  devoted  to  teaching 
teachers  of  public  schools  rather  than  one  devoted 
to  teaching  teachers  in  institutions  for  the  feeble- 
minded.   That  must  not  be  taken  to  mean  that  the 


226  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

instruction  to  teachers  in  the  latter  institutions  is 
not  efhcient  nor  at  all  adequate  for  the  work.  Such 
preparation  is  good,  and  in  certain  institutions  is 
certainly  far  better  than  the  instruction  in  some  uni- 
versities or  normal  schools.  But,  on  the  whole,  the 
preparation  in  institutions  is  calculated  to  fit  teach- 
ers best  for  institution  work.  Public  schools  are 
different.  Likewise  the  whole  background  of  schools 
and  institutions  is  dissimilar  and  this  often  spells 
the  difference  between  successful  and  unsuccessful 
teaching.  Besides,  as  I  have  already  said,  the  types 
of  children  taught,  and  therefore,  the  objectives  of 
teaching,  are  different.  Let  the  young  teacher  then 
seek  out  a  school  having  the  best  equipment,  the 
longest  record  of  experience  in  teaching  special 
teachers,  one  with  a  special  class  of  special  children 
secured  from  the  public  schools,  and  there  let  her  se- 
cure her  special  training.  It  should,  of  course,  in- 
clude all  the  methods  of  the  special  class-room. 
Much  as  I  have  here  emphasized  diagnosis  as  a  nec- 
essary preliminary  and  eliminator  of  waste,  still  the 
student  preparing  for  teaching  must  not  overem- 
phasize this  most  fascinating  portion  of  her  future 
work  to  the  exclusion  of  principles  and  methods  of 
teaching.  Both  phases  are  necessary.  The  diag- 
nosis is  preliminary,  comparatively  brief,  and  once 
done  needs  not  to  be  repeated.  Teaching  is  the  real 
work;  is  comparatively  lengthy,  full  of  monotony 
and  often  discouraging,  requiring  both  skill  and 
character  to  maintain  efficiently  and  to  complete  tri- 


THE  TEACHER  AND  EQUIPMENT      227 

umphantly.  Besides  the  usual  methods  of  special- 
class  training  she  should  learn  manual  work,  in- 
cluding bench  work  in  carpentry,  basket  weaving, 
raffia  work,  clay-modeling,  sand-modeling,  draw- 
ing, water-color  work  and,  what  only  a  few  teachers 
have  yet  attempted,  enough  knowledge  of  machinery 
to  take  apart  a  clock,  odd  bits  of  household  plumb- 
ing, faucets,  gas-cocks,  electric  bells,  sewing-ma- 
chines, phonographs,  etc.  Such  an  array  of  knowl- 
edge may  seem  formidable  but  she  is  not  through 
yet.  The  expert  teacher  must  add  to  her  other  ac- 
complishments the  art  of  physical  culture  encom- 
passing the  usual  calisthenics,  swimming,  a  number 
of  indoor  and  outdoor  games,  and  enough  skill  to 
follow  the  directions  of  a  physician  in  corrective 
gymnastics.  Closely  allied  to  this  is  speech-training, 
which  so  many  of  her  pupils  will  need  and  on 
which  so  much  mental  development  intimately  de- 
pends. Such  demands  may  seem  appalling  but  they 
are  entirely  reasonable  and  will  in  practise  be  found 
little  enough.  Full  proficiency  in  all  of  them  may 
never  be  acquired.  In  the  beginning  only  the  rudi- 
ments need  be  known.  But  a  preliminary  knowl- 
edge of  many  things  is  essential.  A  knowledge  of 
the  daily  demands  of  the  schoolroom  will  soon  be 
transformed  into  an  easy  familiarity  and  a  master- 
ful skill. 

Experience. — ^Whether  she  is  a  young  teacher 
specially  prepared  for  the  work  or  one  from  the 
regular  grades  with  a  long  and  varied  experience 


228  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

is  secondary  to  the  question  of  vitality.  The  latter, 
by  reason  of  age  and  the  mechanizing  effect  of 
grade-teaching  would  more  likely  be  unfitted  in  this 
respect  than  the  beginner.  However,  no  rule  can 
be  made  absolute  here.  A  middle-aged  woman  with 
years  of  experience  through  every  grade  of  a  pub- 
lic school  and  a  young  woman  with  but  a  few  years 
of  teaching  to  her  credit  both  came  from  western 
cities  for  one  summer's  training  in  special-class 
Work  in  an  eastern  university  and  both  went  back 
home  and  made  successes  of  their  careers.  Prep- 
aration is  indispensable.  This  preparation  may  be 
gained  in  the  regular  grades  and  supplemented  with 
regular  training  in  some  school;  or  it  may  be  ob- 
tained without  the  regular-class  experience.  It 
should,  however,  be  gained  in  a  school  or  university 
rather  than  in  an  institution  for  the  feeble-minded 
where,  in  the  first  place,  only  one  great  class  of  back- 
ward children  are  met  and  the  methods  are  not  ar- 
ranged for  the  purpose  of  restoring  the  pupils  to 
society;  and,  in  the  second  place,  where  the  prob- 
lems of  the  public  school  system  are  not  met  at  all 
or,  at  best,  only  in  a  modified  form.  It  would  be 
preferable  to  choose  teachers  who  grew  up  in  the 
country  rather  than  those  limited  to  the  city  life 
alone.  So  many  of  the  pedagogical  methods  are  but 
adaptations  to  the  natural  life  of  children  in  the 
country  that  at  least  some  first-hand  experience  in 
country  life  is  as  valuable  as  modes  of  procedure  in 
the  class-room. 


THE  TEACHER  AND  EQUIPMENT      229 

The  Need  of  Special-Class  Teachers. — A  word 
might  be  added  concerning  the  need  of  special  teach- 
ers and  the  possibiHties  of  the  profession.  I  fear 
that  I  have  set  the  ideals  so  high  and  have  dwelt  so 
lengthily  on  the  strenuousness  and  exactingness 
of  the  work  that  it  might  seem  to  a  young  person 
appalling  rather  than  appealing.  A  very  brief  ex- 
perience would  assure  any  one  of  the  contrary.  The 
evident  need  of  the  children,  the  novelty  and  free- 
dom of  the  field,  the  daily  sight  of  appreciably  grow- 
ing boys  and  girls,  the  personal  pride  generated  in 
each  pupil  as  he  responds  to  the  training,  the  extra 
recompense  in  salary,  the  increasing  expansion  of 
the  work  throughout  the  world,  the  constant  and  un- 
ceasing development  of  the  teacher  herself,  are  all 
factors  that  make  this  field  of  endeavor  one  of  the 
most  fascinating  and  most  cheering  to  the  real 
teacher  aiming  to  spend  her  life  in  good  works.  All 
the  horror  of  '^abnormal"  children  perishes  with  a 
closer  acquaintance  with  the  little  people  whose  only 
fault  is  their  littleness  in  mind  and  often  in  body. 
In  this  Lilliputian  world  of  intellect  old  standards 
are  quickly  adjusted  to  new  conditions,  and  the 
''bright,"  "cheery,"  "loving,"  "hard-working," 
"grateful"  children  are  to  be  found  here  just  as  they 
are  found  in  any  group  of  children. '  The  terms  may 
take  on  a  relative  meaning  but  they  are  as  real  in 
their  content  and  comfort  here  as  anywhere  else. 
The  genuine  teacher  will  soon  find  herself  just  as 
proud  of  her  charges,  just  as  fond  of  them  and  with 


230  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

just  as  many  friends  among  them  as  the  teacher  in 
the  regular  grades.  Slow  they  may  always  be,  need- 
ing unlimited  patience  and  giving  innumerable 
trials;  but  the  person  who  puts  life  above  livelihood 
knows  that  trials  overcome  bring  patience  with  a 
sense  of  victory  and  of  life  through  growth. 

The  first  requisite  for  holding  a  special  class  is 
a  place  in  which  to  hold  it.  Usually  such  classes  are 
organized  in  schools  already  established  and  the  lo- 
cation and  number  of  the  rooms  and  the  material 
equipment  are  determined  largely  by  the  exigencies 
of  the  circumstances.  Such  should  not  be  the  con- 
dition. The  whole  plan  and  every  procedure  should 
be  determined  alone  by  the  peculiar  needs  of  the 
pupils  to  be  taught.  Many  of  these  pupils  present 
paradoxical  mental  states.  Their  attention  is  the 
flightiest  and  their  nerves  the  most  unstable.  Yet 
their  sensibilities  are  dulled,  their  perceptions 
blunted,  their  gift  of  ideation  either  nil  or  very  weak. 
This  is  true  of  the  mental  defectives  and  partially 
true  of  the  temporarily  backward.  To  excite  the 
liveliest  possible  sensations,  and  so  produce  the  most 
vivid  and  lasting  perceptions  and  yet  not  to  over- 
stimulate  the  explosive  nervous  systems,  is  one  of 
the  prime  and  most  constant  functions  of  the  pass- 
ive surroundings  of  these  pupils.  In  the  location 
and  the  furnishing  of  their  class-rooms  this  objec- 
tive, with  others,  must  be  kept  always  in  mind. 

The  Location  of  the  Rooms. — The  first  point 
of  attention  is  the  location  of  the  rooms.     They 


THE  TEACHER  AND  EQUIPMENT      231 

should  not  be  adjacent  to  other  class-rooms,  if  pos- 
sible, since  the  tramp  of  physical  exercises,  the  noise 
of  manual  work,  the  sound  of  music  and  singing 
may  entirely  interfere  with  other  classes.  While 
thus  comparatively  removed  for  the  sake  of  quiet 
to  others,  the  children  must  equally  be  protected  by 
location  from  the  noises  outside  the  school  build- 
ing. The  side  of  the  building  with  a  favorable 
exposure  for  sun  and  air  must  be  chosen.  Some 
class-rooms  have  no  sashes  in  the  windows  but  are 
open  to  the  air  continually.  Light  and  sunshine, 
shade  and  shadow  must  all  be  provided  for  by  proper 
lighting  and  proportioned  shading  with  awnings. 
Heating  and  ventilation  of  course  must  be  well  ob- 
served; as  well  as  that  very  indefinite  but  essential 
quality  known  as  airiness.  Easy  access  to  suitable 
lavatories  is  another  convenience  not  to  be  over- 
looked. In  brief,  quiet,  air,  light,  space,  comfort 
and  convenience,  these  are  cardinal  points  in  the  lo- 
cation of  the  class-rooms.  How  necessary  some  of 
these  factors  are  may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  a 
whole  special  class  was  demoralized  by  the  ex- 
citement aroused  by  taking  a  flash-light  photo- 
graph. All  class  activities  had  to  be  suspended  for 
the  rest  of  the  day.  One  child  was  almost  thrown 
into  a  fit;  and  this,  too,  not  from  fear,  for  all  of 
them  had  been  doubly  reassured  that  nothing  would 
hurt  them,  but  from  mere  nervous  tension  over  the 
unusual  and  novel. 

The  Number  of  Rooms. — At  least  three  rooms 


232  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

are  needed  for  a  class  of  fifteen  pupils.  This  com- 
paratively generous  number  is  required  partly  be- 
cause the  nature  of  the  work  demands  divisions  and 
subdivisions  of  the  class  reaching  almost,  if  not 
wholly,  to  individual  instruction,  though  it  is  not' 
impossible  to  carry  on  all  the  activities  involved  in 
one  room.  One  room  may  be  devoted  chiefly  to 
manual  work  and  in  it  all  the  work-benches,  tools 
and  lumber  can  be  stored.  Another  is  devoted 
chiefly  to  class  work  of  the  usual  kind.  The  other 
should  be  reserved  for  a  rest  room  and  possibly 
physical  training,  including  speech-training.  The 
last  exercise  must  usually  be  carried  on  with  one 
pupil  at  a  time  and  in  a  room  where  other  sounds 
are  almost  wholly  eliminated.  Besides  the  rooms, 
a  swimming  pool,  an  outdoor  playground,  a  park, 
museums,  and  many  points  of  living  interest  like 
factories  and  shops,  are  all  additional  and  very  help- 
ful advantages.  In  fact,  the  equipment  for  a  spe- 
cial class  should  realize  the  ideal  equipment  for  any 
school. 

The  Furnishings  of  the  Rooms. — Each  room 
should  be  furnished  to  suit  the  children.  Pictures, 
flags,  ferns,  flowers,  aquaria,  birds,  curios,  samples 
of  manufacturing  products,  all  the  endless  odds  and 
ends  that  go  to  make  vip  the  complex  world  about 
them  should  be  where  these  children  can  see  and 
handle  the  things  themselves.  They  can  not  read 
and  image  as  a  normal  child  can;  they  must  see, 
hear,  taste,  smell,  handle  in  order  to  become  ac- 


THE  TEACHER  AND  EQUIPMENT      233 

quainted  with  the  strange  and  overwhelmingly  com- 
plex world  about  them.  Therefore  the  aim  must  be 
to  create  a  replica  in  microcosm  of  the  world  out- 
side the  schoolroom  where,  under  direction,  without 
danger  and  at  their  leisure,  they  can  become  ac- 
quainted with  things  themselves. 

Home-Made  and  Store-Bought  Equipment. — 
Besides  furnishings  the  usual  equipment  of  tools 
and  materials  for  a  complete  kindergarten  must  be 
furnished.  Here,  however,  a  radical  departure  is 
sometimes  made  by  most  able  teachers.  Instead  of 
fully  furnishing  and  equipping  rooms  the  children 
themselves  are  set  to  that  task.  Homely  and  home- 
made articles  take  the  place  of  elaborate  manufac- 
tured ones.  The  greatest  achievement  thus  attained 
is  not  the  objective  results  in  the  room,  but  the  ef- 
fect on  the  children  themselves.  To  make  some- 
thing from  something  is  something;  but  to  make 
something  from  nothing  is  an  achievement  supreme. 
The  interest  aroused  in  hunting  up  soap-boxes,  lum- 
ber, strings,  cord,  nails,  screws,  paints,  tools,  toys, 
plants,  flowers,  sand,  clay,  shells,  pebbles,  vegetables, 
pictures,  charts,  maps,  etc.,  etc.,  the  use  of  old  things 
for  new  purposes,  the  applications  of  things  on  hand 
to  needs,  the  invention  and  discovery  of  means, 
methods  and  materials  to  do  things,  have  a  charm 
and  spontaneity,  a  spirit  of  Robinson  Crusoe  ad- 
venture that  breeds  and  maintains  interest  better 
than  the  most  elaborate  equipments.  The  possibili- 
ties of  such  a  procedure  and  the  actualities  accom- 


234  BACKWARD    CHILDREN 

plished  in  some  places  ought  to  deter  any  new 
teacher  from  discouragement  over  her  meager  ad- 
vantages. For  those  who  have  the  opportunity  and 
face  the  need  a  Hst  of  tools  and  materials  actually 
used  in  special  class  is  appended : 

Equipment 

10  ordinary  pine-top  kitchen  tables  with  drawers, 

36x23  in.    $1.95  each. 
20  children's  chairs,  12-in.  and  14-in.  leg.    80  cts. 
$8.50  per  doz. 
3  double  work-benches,  51x22  in.     $22.00   (5 

drawers). 
1  sand  tray. 

1  couch  or  cot.    $1.50  up. 

2  teacher's  desks.  No.  26,875,  42  x  30  in.  $11.50 

each  with  back  panel  tall  top. 
Plants  for  room  decoration. 
20  steamer  chairs.    $1.50  and  $2.25  with  rest  for 

feet;  $1.25  and  $2.00  without  foot-rest. 
20  3>^-ft.  wands.    10  cts.  each. 
15  pairs  of  1-lb.  dumb-bells.    45  cts.  per  pair. 
15  pairs  of  ^-Ib.  Indian  clubs.    35  cts.  pair. 

1  Pianola  piano. 
Yt,  doz.  bean  bags. 
J4  ream  oaktag  paper,  9  x  14. 

1  large  jar  of  library  paste. 

1  medium  bottle  glue. 
J4  doz.  lead-peilcils,  hard. 

-  Supplies 

Tools: 

1  brace.    $1.25  to  $2.50. 

y2  doz.  bits.    6/32  (30  cts.),  yi  (30  cts.),  Y^  (35 
cts.),  Y2.  (35  cts.),  Y\  (45  cts.). 

2  fret  saws.    25  cts. 

6  doz.  blades.    15  cts.  a  doz. 


THE  TEACHER  AND  EQUIPMENT     235 

2  varnish  brushes  (small). 

3  chisels,    ^i-in,  45  cts. ;  J/^-in.  45  cts. ;  1-in.  75 

cts. 
Brads.    ^  No.  19,  12  cts.  a  lb. ;  1  No.  16,  12  cts. 

alb. 
Nails.    Uyi  No.  12,  8  cts.  a  lb. 
Sandpaper,  No.  1.    1  ct.  a  sheet. 

4  planes,  smoothing.    $1.35. 

1  pliers,  square  nose.    45  cts. 

2  steel  rulers.    About  75  cts. 
4  10-in.  back  saws.    $1.35. 

1  crosscut.    $1.50  to  $2.00. 
1  rip-saw.    $2.25. 
1  screw-driver,  medium.    30  cts. 
Screws.    Flat,  1-in.  No.  6,  30  cts.  gross;  Ij^-in. 

No.  10,  35  cts.  gross. 
4  files,  flat,  10-in.    25  cts.  each. 
1  mallet,  round. 
1  hammer,  claw.    60  cts. 
6  hammers,  tack.    45  cts. 
4  try-squares,  6-in.    30  cts. 
1  oil  stone.    25  cts. 
^2  gal.  turpentine. 

1  can  stain,  oil  walnut.    90  cts.  a  qt. 
25  dowels. 
Cane  for  chairs. 
1  lb.  fine-fine.    75  cts.  bundle. 
1  lb.  fine.    75  cts.  bundle. 
1  lb.  medium.    75  cts.  bundle. 
4  lbs.  raffia.    Light  brown,  green,  55  cts.  lb. ;  old 

blue,  natural,  25  cts. 
1  lb.  reed  No.  1.  $1.25  lb. 
1  lb.  reed  No.  2.  95  cts.  lb. 
1  lb.  reed  No.  3.  75  cts.  lb. 
1  lb.  reed  No.  5.  55  cts.  lb. 
Iy2  doz.  scissors,  sharp  pointed,  5-in.  $2.25  doz. 
Paper: 

12  pkgs.     Prang's  colored  paper,  4x4;  20x25. 
5  cts.  sheet,  50  cts.  a  doz. 


236  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

Clay: 

50  lbs.  clay.    25  cts.  a  brick  (5  lbs.). 

1  jar  for  clay. 
Chalk: 

1  box  of  white  chalk.    35  cts.  a  gross. 

1  box  of  colored  chalk.    10  cts. 
Paints: 

18  boxes  of  water  colors.    25  cts.  small ;  65  cts. 
large. 

2  doz.  water  color  brushes.    10  cts.  each;  $1.00 

doz. ;  No.  3  brush  medium. 
2  doz.  box  grease  crayons.    SO  cts.  doz. 
Wood: 

50  basswood  planks,  %  in. 
25  ft.  joists,  white  pine,  1^  in. 
2  boards,  %  white  pine,  clear  dressed. 
2  boards,  ^  white  wood,  clear  dressed. 
2  boards,  ^  white  wood,  clear  dressed. 
15  ft.  %  joists,  white  pine. 

10  ft.  pine  strips,  white,  %  in.  square,  dressed 
four  sides. 

Courses  for  Backward  Children. — By  the  very 
nature  of  the  case  strict  courses  of  study  are  inap- 
plicable to  backward  children.  Many  of  them  are 
made  backward  because  attempts  are  made  to  con- 
form them  to  courses,  and  many  are  cured  by  the 
simple  expedient  of  giving  them  exercises  fitted  to 
their  needs  and  capacities.  They  require  individual 
instruction  not  only  in  the  sense  that  they  must  re- 
ceive personal  attention  from  the  teacher  directed 
to  each  child  individually,  but  that  each  one  must 
have  studies  and  methods  of  teaching  those  studies 
adapted  to  him.  With  this  understanding,  namely, 
that  liberal  variations  should  be    made    from   the 


THE  TEACHER  AND  EQUIPMENT      237 

curricula  set  down,  we  can  offer  a  few  suggestions 
to  those  without  a  technical  training,  regarding  the 
day's  program  and  the  merest  sketch  of  manual 
work  for  the  first  several  grades. 

The  daily  time  schedule  is  one  similar  to  that  used 
in  ungraded  classes. 

Daily  Program  of  Special  Class 

9:00-  9:15 — Opening  exercises  all  together. 

9:15-  9:30— Morning  talk  to  all. 

9 :30-  9 :45— Written  language. 

9:45-10:00— Paper  language. 
10:00-10:15— Number. 
10 :  15-10 :30— Relaxation. 
10 :30-l  1 :0a— Manual  work. 
ll:00-ll:3a-Reading. 
11:30-12:30 — Gymnasium  and  pool. 
12:30-  2£)0 — Luncheon  and  rest. 

2 :00-  2 :20— Drawing. 

2 :20-T,  2 :40 — Sense  training. 

2 :40-  3  :00— Games. 

3:00-  3:15 — Physical  work — all  children. 

3:15-  3:30 — Folk  dancing  or  corrective  gymnastics. 

3:30-  4:00 — ^Articulation  or  story  dramatization. 

As  a  suggestion  for  manual  work  of  the  simplest 
kind,  the  following  has  been  found  valuable: 

Guiding  Principles 

• 
1.    The  purpose  of  the  work  should  be  to  develop 
the  children,  not  merely  to  produce  results  in  mate- 
rial things.    The  progress  a  child  makes  in  comparison 
with  his  first  efforts  is  far  more  significant  than  his 


238  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

output.    His  interest,  attention,  perseverance,  ingenu- 
ity are  factors  of  the  greatest  moment. 

2.  The  lessons  given  below  are  designed  to  suit  the 
capacities  of  children  of  different  ages,  and  approxi- 
mately also  arranged  to  appeal  to  their  instinctive 
life-stages. 

3.  The  materials  used  should  be,  as  far  as  possible, 
those  found  in  the  neighborhood.  What  to  make,  out 
of  what  to  make  it,  where  to  secure  the  material  for 
making  it,  are  questions  often  opening  up  more  edu- 
cational processes  than  actually  making  the  thing  itself. 

For  Children  From  Five  Years  to  Eight  Years 

1.  Bead-stringing,  using  small  fruits  like  haw-ap- 
ples, and  seeds,  combined  to  form  effective  color-de- 
signs. 

2.  Paper  boxes.  A  multitude  of  forms  will  occur 
to  any  mind. 

3.  Paper- weaving,  mats,  baskets,  book-marks.  Wil- 
low-twigs, grasses,  long  pine  needles,  etc.,  can  also  be 
used. 

4.  Card-board  work.  All  kinds  of  models ;  animals, 
birds,  fish,  weapons  for  boys,  Indian  life,  pioneer  life, 
colonial  life,  boats,  toys.  Nearly  everything  possible 
to  make  with  cards  can  also  be  made  with  burs  from 
common  burdock,  and  many  things  can  be  made  from 
leaves. 

5.  Clay-modeling.  The  clay  can  be  procured  by 
the  children.  Sometimes  different  colors  are  found 
in  the  same  locality.  Clay  provides  a  most  excellent 
medium  for  developing  children's  perseverance,  for  it 
can  be  rekneaded  and  reshaped  again  and  again  until 
an  effect  is  produced.  An  infinite  variety  of  objects 
can  be  made.  Let  the  children  follow  their  own  fan- 
cies. 

6.  Sand  piles.  Let  fancy,  instinct,  utility  and  art 
dictate  what  shall  be  made. 

7.  Permit  the  children  to  take  apart  and  examine 


THE  TEACHER  AND  EQUIPMENT     239 

every  common  article  possible,  like  puzzles,  faucets, 
coffee-mills,  pumps,  clocks,  model  stoves,  steam-en- 
gines, etc.,  etc. 

Children  From  Nine  Years  to  Twelve  Years 

1.  The  same  kind  of  work  as  that  given  to  the 
lower  grades  but  more  advanced  in  detail,  exactness, 
intricacy  and  beauty  can  be  given. 

2.  With  the  various  materials  required, — card- 
board, wood,  clay,  cement  and  stone, — make  models 
each  of  the  typical  industries  of  the  neighborhood. 
This  can  be  carried  out  in  as  much  detail  as  the  most 
advanced  pupil  desires.  For  example,  farming  re- 
quires bams,  stables,  animals,  fowls,  wagons,  ma- 
chinery, trees,  streams,  etc. 

3.  With  the  materials  required  make  toys  suitable 
for  play  and  games  appropriate  for  children's  ages. 
Bats,  oars,  sleds,  skees,  clubs,  spears,  bows,  swords, 
guns,  dolls,  doll-clothes,  clay-dishes,  etc. 

4.  Weaving  grape-vines,  corn-husks,  rye-straw,  wil- 
low, reed,  raffia,  carpet-rags,  cane,  etc. 


240  BACKWARD   CHILDREN 

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INDEX 


INDEX 

Adenoids :  41  •  signs  of,  38-46 ;  mental  signs  of,  46,  47 ;  surgi- 
cal treatment,  154. 
Amentia,  164. 
Apperceptive  Mass,  195. 
Association,  214,  215-217. 

Backwardness:  meaning  of,  13-16;  causes  of,  110;  badness, 
83  ff. ;  coffee,  116;  companions,  118-129;  food,  117; 
home  training,  134-138;  marks  of,  174,  184-189;  treat- 
ment of,  145. 

Badness:  environmental,  83-89;  hopeless,  90-94;  misdirected 
energy,  94-97. 

Binet  Tests,  179,  180. 

Bodily  Organs,  175. 

Breathing,  45. 

Bridgman,  Laura,  169. 

Catlin,  94. 

Chapin,  116. 

Chicken-pox,  160. 

Classification  of  Backward  Children,  165. 

Clinical  Diagnosis,  162,  183,  184. 

Colds,  158. 

Complexion,  174. 

Cough,  Whooping,  158. 

Courses  of  Study,  236-241. 

Darwin,  100. 

Diagnosis:   163-165;  of  backwardness,  138;  teachers',  191493. 

Diets,  147-153. 

Earache,  160. 
Eczema,  159. 
Emotions,  208. 

Environmental  Causes  of  Retardation,  3S. 
Examination:    oral,  167-170;  physical,  170,  171;  school.  195: 
ear,  49;  eye,  49,  52-53. 

Family  History,  167-178. 
Parrel,  62. 

Feeble-Mindedness,  164. 
Foods,  148. 

245 


246  INDEX 

Gangs,  125-133. 
Grippe,  158. 

Headaches,  159. 
Heredity,  168-170. 
Hutchinson,  100. 

Idiot,  183. 

Imagination,  217. 

Imbecility,  marks  of,  171-183. 

Immediately  Recoverable  Cases,  25-27. 

Instincts,  197-203. 

Intellectual  Processes,  208,  209,  211-218. 

Interest,  72-82,  196,  197. 

Itch,  160. 

Jones,  Elmer  E.,  206. 

Keller,  Helen,  169. 

Laziness,  99-102* 

Malnutrition,  45. 
Manual-Minded,  61-72. 
Measles,  158. 
Memory,  186,  213,  214. 
Mental  Capacity,  165. 
Mental  Content,  193,  194* 
Mental  Tests,  178-180. 
Moron,  183. 

Mouth-Breathing,  42,  43. 
Music,  184. 

Pedagogical  Retardation,  5-7. 

Perception,  205,  206. 

Permanent  Retardation,  24  ff. 

Physical  Defects,  36  ff. 

Physical  Examination,  38-46. 

Physical  Marks  of  Retardation,  171-178, 

Physicians,  Royal  College  of,  164. 

Pinkeye,  160. 

Play,  200,  201. 

Potentialities,  166. 

Program  of  Special  Class,  237. 

Psychological  Clinic,  The,  94. 

i 

Quinsy,  159. 


lNt)EX  247 

Rapidly  Recoverable  Cases,  28-30. 
Reading  Tests,  47-50. 
Reasoning,  216,  217. 
Retardation — see  Backwardness. 
Rhythm,  76,  11,  184. 

Scarlet  Fever,  159. 

Seguin,  218,  221. 

Sewing,  78. 

Simon,  179. 

Skin  Diseases,  159. 

Slow  Pupils,  59-61. 

Slowly  Recoverable  Cases,  30-33. 

Sore  Throat,  159. 

Special  Class  Equipment :  233-236 ;  furnishing  rooms,  230-232. 

Special  Sense  Organs,  176-178. 

Standards  of  Backwardness:  1,  2;  Binet-Simon,  11;  individ- 
ual, 1 ;  pedagogical,  6 ;  play,  7 ;  scientific,  5,  9 ;  social,  3 ; 
summary,  16,  17. 

Tartar,  155. 

Taylor,  Charles  Keen,  116,  132. 

Teacher  of  Special  Class,  219,  230. 

Teacher-Mother,  142-145. 

Teeth,  44,  154-157. 

Temperaments,  203-205. 

Temporarily  Retarded,  18,  23  ff. 

Tests:  Binet,  179,  180;  ear,  49;  eye,  49,  52,  53;  memory,  207. 

Tonsils,  44,  157. 

Training:  home,  140-142;  moral,  27,  80. 

Treatment :  constitutional,  54,  55,  145,  146 ;  surgical,  153. 

Truancy,  103-108. 

Varieties  of  Retardation,  23-25. 
Varieties  of  Standards,  23  ff. 
Volition,  210. 

Wilfulness,  161. 


xxxxo  liv^uiv  JiSy  uu^  UJN   xniu  IjAJSA  UAX±i 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.00  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


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